Huntington Town Board reviews $229M FY24 budget
By Sabrina Artusa
During the Huntington Town Board meeting on Nov. 2, town Supervisor Ed Smyth (R) and his staff reviewed the projected operational expenses budget for the 2024 fiscal year.
The $229 million budget, an increase of 4.09%, is designed for “revitalization and redevelopment,” as Smyth wrote in the budget. The heads of 10 offices reviewed their expenditures and accomplishments in 2023 with anticipated plans for 2024.
Peter Leodis, acting director of the town’s Audit & Control Department; Andre Sorrentino, superintendent of highways; and John Clark, director of Environmental Waste Management, among others, prepared presentations dissecting their predicted expenditures and their departments’ missions.
Leodis said the town’s budget carries a 2.25% tax levy increase while not piercing the state tax cap. The average Huntington taxpayer is expected to pay $30 more for the four primary funds: the general, highway, part-town and consolidated refuse funds.
Leodis said many increases are due to “mandatory contractual increases like health services.” Sorrentino added that contractual increases account for almost 99% of his department’s total budget increase.
Don McKay, a Democratic candidate for Town Board, said, “I respectfully believe that some of the proposed revenues are not realistic but inflated.”
“I hope we are not going back to raising parking fees,” he added.
James Ahrens, interim director of the Engineering Services Department, said his budget correlates with an “aggressive plan to address many projects,” some of which include the repair of the Long Island Rail Road parking garage, reconstruction of the Koster Park basketball courts in Huntington Station and renovation of various plants in the Dix Hills water district.
Huntington was awarded $1.25 million in funding from Suffolk County Jumpstart program for downtown parking and waterfront improvements.
Last year, the town received the Distinguished Budget Presentation Award from the Government Finance Officers Association.
McKay also voiced concern over how the capital budget has previously been utilized, saying that two projects have been overlooked and have “gone nowhere.”
In addition to budget discussion, Angelo Santomauro and Bruce Smith spoke in support of a proposal to apply a partial property tax exemption for volunteer firefighters and ambulance workers, a perk Santomauro said “will become so important in our efforts to recruit.” The tax cut would be applied only to those who have put in two-to-five years of service.
The council also authorized the supervisor to approve programs benefiting the developmentally disabled and to collaborate with the New York Rangers for a girls hockey program.
The next board meeting will be Thursday, Nov. 16, at 7 p.m.
