Southold’s 2018 operating budget was brought back to the spending level proposed by Supervisor Scott Russell in September before it was unanimously adopted by the town board at a special meeting last night.
Russell’s tentative budget required a 1.64-percent tax rate increase to fund the 2018 spending plan. The town board’s preliminary budget added just under $75,000 to the tentative budget, bringing the tax rate increase to 1.77 percent.
But after a Nov. 8 budget hearing, board members agreed to shave expenditures by the amount they’d added. The reduction was accomplished in two ways, Russell explained. First, town officials concluded they’d over-budgeted for health insurance costs by $30,000. Second, they shifted the expenditure of $45,000 for a new road-striping machine from the operating budget to the capital program budget.
“We believe since it’s a direct result of the the road resurfacing program and is to be used directly as part of tha program, it is appropriate to charge it to that fund,” Russell said.
Total town-wide appropriations in the adopted 2018 operating budget are $45,687,473, a 3.67 percent increase in town-wide spending over 2017.
The total amount to be raised by real property taxes is $34,960,059, a 2.28 percent property tax levy increase.
The town-wide appropriations include the solid waste district but not other special district taxes such as park district or fire district taxes or Fishers Island ferry, sewer or waste management district taxes.
Town of Southold 2018 Adopted Budget by East End Local Media Corp. on Scribd
