The village of East Williston ended its budget season by passing a financial plan with a 7.934% tax levy increase.
East Williston Mayor Bonnie Parente has said the village’s $2,934,633 budget requires a higher than usual tax levy increase due to a need to recalibrate the village’s books after they had not been kept as neatly as they needed to be by the village’s previous treasurer. These costs include the hiring of a new, full-time treasurer.
Parente had emphasized at prior budget meetings that no money had been lost and the books just needed to be updated properly.
For the past 10 years, East Williston has raised taxes an average of less than 1% per year, even though village costs had increased over 25% through that time period, according to a letter to residents Parente sent out earlier this year. The board voted to pass a local law allowing the village to raise taxes above the 2% state-imposed tax cap last month.
After finalizing the village’s budget, the board moved into its annual organization meeting, with Parente appointing Phil Chappo to the zoning board, Daniel Simone to the planning board, Joanna Palumbo as village clerk, Scott Cunningham as treasurer, Elissa Jansen as deputy village clerk, Jared Mandel as building inspector and deputy plumping inspector and Patrick Theodore as code enforcement officer.
She then moved to appointing members of village volunteer committees and other roles, including Raffela Dunne and Jim Daw to the centennial committee, John Signorelli as fire commissioner, David Shelly as village arborist and Mark Davella as village assessor.
All committee members support the functioning of the village and typically work closely with employees to ensure all runs smoothly.
Anyone filling a role that requires appointment who were not in attendance last night will be able to sign an oath book at a later date in order to continue their work in the village.
