Community Corner
Town Board Adopts $63.8 Million Tax Levy
Including special district taxes, the tax levy is slated to rise 1.2 percent.
The Southampton Town Board voted unanimously Friday in favor of a 2012 budget with a total tax levy of $63.8 million, a 1.2 percent rise over the 2011 levy and well below the new state-mandated cap of 2 percent.
Houses outside of an incorporated village assessed at $600,000 would see taxes increase by $18, while houses inside a village would have taxes drop by $24. Comptroller Tamara Wright said that assessments have gone down outside of the village, so homeowners whose property values slid will not see their taxes go up as much.
According to Wright, the tax levy before including special districts dropped 0.03 percent. She said what accounted for most of the uptick in the levy of special districts is newly established erosion control districts, which are self taxing and administered by neighborhood associations. They were designed for homeowners with beachfront property to gang together to .
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Not including police officers, Wright said 18 town employees came forward to retire under a the town board offered to reduce personnel costs.
The budget calls for forcing some members of the into retirement under a provision of state law specific to Southampton Town that says individual police officers may only stay on the force past 20 years of service by resolution of the town board. While two senior officers were slated to retire voluntarily, six others with 25 years or more on the force were to be "separated from service" under town Supervisor Anna Throne-Holst's initial budget proposal.
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Town Management Services Administrator Russell Kratoville said after the budget adoption that the final budget, as amended, calls for retaining more administrative officers in exchange for the "non-continuance" of employment for some patrol officers with more than 20 years of service.
Kratoville said that under the 20-year provision "almost two dozen officers are subject to separation unless the board agrees to permit them to remain."
The final budget calls for a police force of 90 officers, down from 92 in 2011, Kratoville said. There will be 16 administrative officers, down from 18, he said. The budget calls for replacing veteran officers will new hires, who will have lower salaries.
