(Photo by Jennifer Corr)
After a public hearing where no one commented, the Village of Mineola Board of Trustees adopted the $25,606,126 2022 through 2023 budget.
This was a budget with a $261,180 increase, resulting in a 1.88 percent increase, which is below the tax cap of 2 percent.
“Any increase was not done lightly,” said Village of Mineola Deputy Mayor Janine Sartori. “This was truly thought out, well planned, well discussed among all the departments to make sure that our village and our residents didn’t sacrifice anything they currently get and we’re going to continue to maintain all the things we need to maintain in this village.”
Sartori then said she was proud to sign her name on this budget.
“The budget process started well before me taking office two weeks ago,” said Village of Mineola Mayor Paul Pereira.”It started before the elections. I met with [Village Treasurer Giacomo] Ciccone and [Former Mayor of Mineola Scott] Strauss. Mr. Strauss worked on this with Mr. Ciccone. I worked on this with Mr. Ciccone. And then we transitioned. We got a new clerk coming in. There was a lot of changes happening at one time and the one constant was Mr. Ciccone coming up and being very transparent and diligent and very sensitive to those changes.”
As far as expenses, the cost of gasoline and diesel increased by $60,000; liability and fire insurance increased by $100,000; equipment for street maintenance increased by $80,000; sidewalk repairs increased by $100,000 and workers compensation increased by $50,000 from last year’s budget.
Along with monies from the taxpayers, revenues will supplement those increasing costs. Revenues include $50,000 in Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILOTs); $40,000 in interest income; $100,000 in building permits; $70,000 in fines and forfeitures and $105,000 in mortgage tax.
“I am proud to say that I feel comfortable with this budget and it is a good budget, it is a smart budget,” Pereira said. “It is a budget that allows us to continue not only provide a level of service that people have been coming to respect, but also to begin to improve on that and to actually augment that.”
