At last week’s village board meeting, the numbers were in, in terms of Mineola’s budget and it seems that the village is good standing.
Before the board, village treasurer Giacomo Ciccone presented various topics that were proposed in the upcoming 2019-20 budget. Under the village’s general fund the village’s interest income will increase $100,000 due to interest rates rising in the markets.
“We’re also increasing the gross receipt taxes by $15,000 from the prior year,” said Ciccone. “We’re decreasing mortgage tax by $50,000.”
Ciccone also informed the village board that the village’s balance left on debt is $6,927,250 and the aid from New York State will stay the same. According to Mayor Scott Strauss, Governor Andrew Cuomo reinstituted the village’s state aid that was on the brink of being taken away from many surrounding villages in Nassau. The village expects to maintain their $265,000 aid. The county also reinstituted the sales tax sharing for the village, meaning Mineola gets back $52,000 that was taken away last year.
“Next week, we’re having a hearing that’s open to the public on the budget,” said Strauss. “All of these changes equate to .96 [percent] increase. Kudos to Mr. Ciccone, our department heads and the board for watching every penny and dollar, making sure that it’s spent the right way and making our adjustments. The tax cap is at 2 percent. We are at .96 [percent]. It’s phenomenal. I’d like it to be 0 percent, but we couldn’t get there. We’re in a phenomenal place.”
Trustee George Durham also mentioned the village’s roadwork budget.
“I did see that we increased the roadwork to $1 million,” said Durham. “That’s $280,000 more that we’re putting to roadwork.”
Strauss said that the village increased the budget line so that total road repaving projects are just shy of $1.4 million.
“We were at a little more than $500,000 just several years ago,” said Strauss. “We’ve done tremendous work with the funds that we have. Like I said, we’re just shy of $1.4 million in the budget. Those are monies that we don’t have to borrow. These are monies that are allocated every year to get into our roads. The more money we can put into our roads, the more roads we can pave and work on. Thanks Mr. Rini and your team for watching the lines.”
Trustee Dennis Walsh said that he was happy with this year’s budget.
However, there were some issues with the budget this year according to Strauss in terms of increasing the village’s municipal solid waste, healthcare, workers compensation and insurance costs.
“But, we managed them,” said Strauss.
On Wednesday, April 10, at 6:30 p.m. at village hall, the board will be having an open hearing on the budget.
“Please feel free to stop by and participate if you’d like,” said Strauss. “We have copies [of the budget] at village hall if you’re interested.”
Deputy mayor Paul Pereira echoed the mayor’s comments saying that he looks forward to seeing residents come out.
Village of Mineola Budget Summary
The following is the tentative budget for the Village of Mineola during the 2019-20 fiscal year from June 1, 2019 to May 21, 2020. The total sum of the budget is $23,728,873.
• General Government—$4,616,212
• Public Safety—$2,035,053
• Health—$77,000
• Transportation—$3,281,752
• Culture/Recreation—$516,639
• Home/Community—$2,638,718
• Employee Benefits—$4,493,367
• Debt Service—$547,580
• Water Fund—$2,739,769
• Swimming Pool Fund—$668,665
• Library Fund—$2,114,118
