Riverhead Town pierces tax cap, nixing state property tax rebate checks for homeowners this fall

The Riverhead Town Board last night pierced the state-imposed property tax cap by adopting an operating budget that calls for a tax levy increase of 5.06 percent — 3 percent higher than the 2.06-percent limit imposed on Riverhead this year, a difference of $1.23 million.

The action means that Riverhead Town taxpayers will not be receiving property tax freeze rebate checks from the state this fall. The tax freeze rebate checks from the state this year are to include increases in school and municipal taxes — the heftiest rebates in the state’s three-year tax freeze program. The rebate checks last year were for increases in school taxes only.

The rebates go to all eligible homeowners who live in jurisdictions that have approved government efficiency plans — which Suffolk County, Riverhead Town and both Riverhead Central School District and Shoreham-Wading River School District do — and where all taxing entities comply with the tax levy limitation.

The $92.7 million overall spending plan approved by a 4-1 vote of the board calls for a town-wide tax rate increase of 4.08 percent, which is $51.029 per $1,000 of assessed valuation. That’s up $2 per thousand over the 2015 town tax rate.

An “average” single-family home with an assessed value of $50,000 (an assessed value that translates into about $350,000, he said) would have a town tax hike (excluding special district taxes) of about $100 in the coming tax year, according to Supervisor Sean Walter.

Councilwoman Jodi Giglio cast the lone dissenting vote on both the mandatory local law authorizing the town to pierce the tax levy limitation and the budget resolution itself. Before voting no to pierce the cap, Giglio said she had proposed “several cuts and additions in revenue” that she said would have made piercing the cap unnecessary.

“I would have liked to work with the board and garner support to bring this tax increase down a bit,” Giglio said. “I can’t support this.”

Prior to the Nov. 3 election — in which the councilwoman, who is in the middle of her second four-year term on the board, sought to unseat the incumbent supervisor, who has a two-year term — Giglio vowed to review the supervisor’s proposed budget line-by-line to find ways to bring it in under the tax cap. The board held one budget discussion following the Sept. 30 filing of the supervisor’s tentative budget. That took place a month later, during the Oct. 29 work session.

At that time, Giglio gave the board a list of proposed budget changes that she said would result in a $936,000 net savings to the town. Among them, a tenfold increase in the annual runway use rental fee that would be charged Luminati Aerospace, from $30,000 to $300,000. Other anticipated revenue increases would come from the doubling of rental permit fees as well as an expected rise in fines for code violations, which Giglio said would result from stepped-up code enforcement efforts. At the same time, she proposed cutting an attorney in the town’s law department and hiring additional part-time code enforcement officers.

Giglio also proposed cutting the deputy supervisor and chief of staff positions in the town supervisor’s office and creating a new position of town manager. She also called for the elimination of an accountant position in the town’s finance department.

During the Oct. 29 work session, Giglio grilled Riverhead Police Chief David Hegermiller on his department’s overtime needs, the condition of patrol cars and camera equipment, contract provisions that allow personnel to get cash for unused sick leave and vacation time, and the chief’s stipend for emergency management coordination. But nothing came of that questioning and board members did not embrace Giglio’s suggested budget changes. No further budget discussions were held after that date.

Councilmen James Wooten and John Dunleavy both responded to Giglio’s comments about the budget before casting their votes to pierce the cap and adopt the proposed budget.

“I too looked to trim as much as I could. I just couldn’t rise it to the level we need it to be, so I think we’re over a barrel with this,” Wooten said.

Dunleavy said he “looked over the budget” and knows the supervisor “doesn’t give anybody anything they don’t need.” He said he had been interesting in cutting spending in the police department and ambulance district, but no one else on the board supported that. “This is the leanest budget,” he said. “There’s no extra meat on it.”

Before voting no on the budget, Giglio made a conciliatory speech about her rival in the just-ended bitterly fought election campaign. She said the two met on Monday and arrived at a truce.

“I just want to thank the supervisor for taking the time yesterday to meet with me and I can say that we are truly going to be working together towards the better for the residents of the Town of Riverhead,” Giglio said. “We are going to put everything in the past behind us and complement each other and work with the rest of the town board in moving the town forward,” she said.

One example of the new era of cooperation was the adoption last night of a budget amendment to move $80,000 from rental permit fees to personal services to hire part-time code enforcement staff ($30,000) and to computer equipment ($50,000) for the computer system upgrade in the building and assessors departments for which Giglio has been advocating for more than a year. The supervisor had opposed that upgrade being done prior to an upgrade of the town’s financial software and computer system.

Both Walter and Giglio were all smiles last night despite their disagreement on the tax cap and budget votes.

“I have a lot of respect for Sean,” Giglio said. “He won the election and I respect the taxpayers and the voters of the town and I will do everything that I can to help him and the rest of the town board to make this town the best that it can be.”