Malverne Village Approves 2.79 Percent Tax Hike

The board of trustees for the village of Malverne adopted a $14.3 million budget for the 2011-2012 fiscal year on Thursday, which will increase taxes 2.79 percent.

In a swift vote that included Mayor Patricia Norris McDonald and three out of the four village trustees the board unanimously approved the budget on April 20, which will take effect June 1. (Deputy Mayor and Trustee James Callahan was unable to vote as he is recovering from a stroke suffered earlier in the month.) 

McDonald described the increase as "modest," explaining that residents can expect to pay $62.28 per every $100 of their homes' value.

The officials were able to trim $12,000 from the budget originally presented to the public on April 13 to lower the tax hike by 0.01 percent despite increases in employees' salaries.

Most of the village departments had already tightened their belts, either slashing their spending budgets or working with the same amount they received last year to save over $121,000. () This left little room for the board to find additional savings in the week they had to tweak before the budget adoption meeting on April 21.

Still, the officials did need to make more cuts, especially since some salaries were bumped up from the first draft of the budget that they had presented.

Both the village justice clerk and three clerk typists received salary increases around $1,000, and eight employees in the treasurer's office saw their salaries climb between the proposed budget and the one adopted Thursday. So did the assessor, a part-time clerk to the assessor, and the superintendent of the department of Public Works, who will earn $105,828 for 2011-2012. The building superintendent and inspector each received more compensation in the final budget that the board approved, adding a combined extra $4,000 to the expense side. 

Four school crossing guards and one parking meter attendant each received slight salary increases ranging from roughly $300 to $1,000, and one neighborhood aide got a small bump in pay.

To counteract the added expenses, the board slashed compensation for one of its part-time neighborhood aides, and eliminated a part-time parking meter attendant position who had earned around $24,000. They also cut the salary of a part-time clerk by more than half to recoup another $5,000.

In total, salaries for village employees rose from $5,244,718 to $5,865,267 between the two versions of the budget presented.

So how did the board compensate for these added personnel expenses and eliminate $12,000 from the budget?

The board reduced the village's contingent account by just over 2.5 percent and lowered the salary for an office assistant in the safety inspection department by nearly 6 percent. 

On the revenue side, the board budgeted for a 2.42 increase in real property taxes and a 60 percent increase in its general government fund. They were also able to tap into a $500,000 surplus that they ended the year with. 

“Our revenue sources were greatly affected this year with a drop of $332,576 from areas that are beyond our control such as the cut in state aid, elimination of the Nassau County sales tax, the drop in interest rates and the drastic reduction in the mortgage tax,” McDonald said.

She also added grant opportunities to this list, but said all the departments will continue to apply for those that are available.

She summed up the budget process, saying,"The board has been faced with the difficult challenge of providing the lowest possible tax increase to our residents while maintaining the services that you have come to know and rely upon."

"It's a fair budget," Trustee Joseph Hennessy added.

Copies of the adopted budget are available in Village Hall.