VOTE: Greenport and Cutchogue Libraries Propose Tax Hike

Voting for proposed tax hikes takes place Tuesday from 2 to 8 p.m. to support budgets for and in Greenport.

After three years of maintaining the same tax appropriation by using money from a fund balance, Floyd Memorial's director Lisa Richland said that inflation has raised prices of heating and cooling and other material costs to an unmanageable level in their proposed $821,449 operating budget for the coming year.

"The reason we haven't had a vote for three years is because we have been able to have the same tax appropriation since 2008," she said.

The proposed tax rate per $1,000 assessed valuation in 2012 is $30.60, which amounts to a 1.6 percent tax increase.

Officials of the Cutchogue-New Suffolk Library are asking Cutchogue residents to support a proposed $1.45 million budget for the coming year, which includes a 3.85 percent spending increase for residents of Cutchogue and New Suffolk.

A Cutchogue homeowner whose property is assessed at $5,000 will pay $11.34 more in taxes per year, and a New Suffolk resident will see an increase of $11.20 per year if the proposal is passed.