Hempstead Town Board approves $576 million budget for 2026

The Hempstead Town Board adopted a $576 million budget for 2026 that increases spending and relies on reserves while keeping the overall tax levy flat.

The budget passed 6-0 Thursday, with Councilwoman Dorothy Goosby absent from the vote, following afternoon and evening hearings. 

Supervisor John Ferretti touted a reduction in the general fund tax levy, which is the biggest and the only of 58 levies in the budget that hits all properties. The general fund levy will fall to $22.9 million from $27.9 million, a $5 million decrease.

"This $5 million tax cut represents real relief for our residents and puts money directly back into the wallets of every single taxpayer in the Town of Hempstead," Ferretti said during the afternoon hearing. 

General fund spending, however, will increase and the town plans to use more of its reserves to close an operating deficit. 

Town spending under the plan would increase by $26.5 million, up 4.9% from $549.1 million in the current year’s adopted budget.

The town plans to use $56 million of reserves in 2026 to balance the budget, Town Comptroller John Mastromarino said during the evening budget hearing.

One unknown is how a new collective bargaining agreement with the Civil Service Employees Association, which represents town employees, will affect costs. The current contract expires at the end of 2025 and a new contract has not been announced. Town spokesman Brian Devine said in an email the budget accounts for potential salary increases. 

Total townwide tax levies will increase to $389.3 million from $389 million, according to the spending plan. Ferretti said the total number shouldn’t be considered the town budget because it includes 14 independent commissioner-run special districts that set their own budgets. Excluding those 14 levies, the 44 levies the town board does have control over will decrease to $284.8 million from $289.8 million.

"This town has absolutely no control over the total town tax levy," Ferretti said during the afternoon hearing. 

In a departure from recent past practice, the 2026 budget proposal included a line that separated those 14 districts from others. 

The original budget proposal did not include information about the town’s available reserves despite a state audit that warned the town was required by law to provide those details.

A motion posted on the town's website late Wednesday stated the town estimates it will end 2026 with $129.1 million in fund balances but did not include required details about how fund balances have been set aside for certain purposes or are unreserved.

A 2022 audit said  “Due to a lack of required information provided in the preliminary budget, officials and taxpayers may not have had adequate information to properly assess budget estimates.” Further, it said, "officials and taxpayers did not have complete and sufficient financial information to effectively assess the reasonableness of fund balances and its effect on the overall budgets.”

Before the budget hearings began Thursday, the town board approved an amendment that eliminated a $1,042 raise for the deputy supervisor's salary, an appointed position in the town supervisor's department. Goosby, a Democrat, has held that job since 2022. That salary, which is in addition to her salary as councilwoman, will remain at $35,916.