The Village of Westbury Board of Trustees passed a law last week that will allow them to exceed the tax cap, a measure that gives them flexibility as they begin the budget process.
The board has passed this law for the past several years, however, Mayor Peter Cavallaro noted that they have never actually exceeded the tax cap. However, passing the law gives them a bit of leeway as they put the budget together for 2017, which has a tax cap of 1.15 percent.
“We don’t set out to stay under the tax cap, we set out to put a budget in place that’s reasonable and responsible and will cover everything we need to cover at the least possible cost to taxpayers,” Cavallaro said. “As the years go on, it’s getting harder and harder to stay under the tax cap.”
Safety was also brought up at the meeting, as a resident expressed concern over if there was adequate police coverage in the area. Prompting that discussion was a recent robbery and home invasion on Dover Street, where four Hispanic men forced themselves into a home on Dec. 23.
One of the men held a knife to a 10-year-old female in the home, and bound the hands of a 35-year-old male while the others ransacked the house. The men stole $1,700 from an unoccupied basement apartment before fleeing the scene on foot.
Cavallaro said there is daily dialogue with the police department, however with the $7 million village residents pay in police tax, he wishes there were more patrols in the area for quality of life and traffic issues.
“They’re severely undermanned,” Cavallaro said of the NCPD. “We try to get more resources dedicated to the village but that’s an ongoing battle.”
He noted that the village also has code enforcement officers who do regular patrols on nights and weekends, providing a physical official presence hoped to deter crime.
