Smithtown Officials Adopt $104.3M budget for 2014

Residents can expect to see their town taxes drop under the Town of Smithtown's 2014 budget. 

Smithtown Town Board unanimously adopted the supervisor's a $104.3 million budget for 2014 at their Tuesday afternoon meeting. The adopted budget represents a $700,000 increase over the current 2013 budget but comes in under New York State's 2 percent tax cap. 

The average Town of Smithtown homeowners should see their town taxes cut by $13.12 for a house assessed at $5,500. There were no changes made to the budget after the public hearing held on Oct. 24. 

"However you look at the budget, there's a decrease in taxes to the average homeowner and given the state of the economy that is a remarkable achievement," Vecchio said. 

These tax cuts will be possible, in large part, due to the town's budgeting for 2013. Smithtown Comptroller Louis Necroto said the town put aside nearly $11 million for expected health care insurance costs in 2013, but is anticipated to come up at $10.3 million. The $700,000 additional will be applied towards 2014 budget. 

The town will also find significant savings by eliminating jobs through attrition of staff as 5 high-level staff members have left or retired this year: a director in Public Safety Department at roughly  $115,000; one staff in Engineering; two staff in Parks & Recreation Department with salaries at roughly $250,000, and one employee in Highway Safety.  Vecchio said the town will not be filling all of these positions. 

Necroto has also predict the town's mortgage tax revenue will continue to increase into 2014, up from $4.2 million predicted in 2013 to $5 million in 2014. 

Despite these savings and increased revenue, the supervisor still proposes using $2.75 million of the town's reserve funds to apply to its general funds to help keep taxes down. This is less than $3 million in reserves used to keep the 2013 budget in check and does not pose a fiscal issue, according to Vecchio.