Islip's 2027 budget plan includes 18% tax hike, but board members decline to approve it

Islip officials presented a 2027 budget to the town board that would raise homeowners' taxes roughly 18%, but Town Supervisor Angie Carpenter's call to approve the plan failed amid finger-pointing between her and a board member over the budgeting process.

The $306.5 million budget laid out by Comptroller Robert Kordic calls for a 6% spending increase, or roughly $18 million more, compared with this year’s.

The tax levy would be $177.9 million, compared with $159.2 million this year, according to town spokeswoman Caroline Smith — an increase of nearly 12%. According to those figures, it would surpass the town’s 2% tax cap limit. The proposal would mark the third consecutive year Islip pierced its tax cap.

Under the plan, the taxes on a $400,000 home would increase from $772 this year to $907 next year.

Kordic, in unveiling the budget proposal Thursday, pinned the 2027 uptick on rising health insurance and pension costs, mandatory salary increases for union workers, a new garbage contract, and increasing debt service payments. Those items account for a combined $15.2 million in new spending, he said.

“With everything that we had facing us this year … it was higher than we would have liked,” said Carpenter, the Republican town leader who crafted the budget with Kordic’s office. “Obviously residents expect services, and they have a right to.”

However, Carpenter’s colleagues on the board — two Republicans, a Conservative and a Democrat — all remained silent when the supervisor proposed approving the plan, so the motion died without a second backer.

Republican Councilman Michael McElwee said he spurned the proposal because Carpenter excluded board members from the budget process. He told Newsday he and other officials were unable to meet with department heads to discuss their budget needs.

“[Carpenter] prepared a budget without meaningful input from her fellow town board members,” McElwee wrote in a statement. “If the supervisor were willing to work collaboratively … we could work together to identify opportunities to reduce expenses, generate additional revenue, and operate our town government more efficiently.”

Carpenter said board members have had copies of the proposed budget for months, but none offered suggestions or amendments. The supervisor also denied that the board members were unable to meet with department heads.

“They have had [the budget] since Sept. 15, when the comptroller shared it with everyone,” Carpenter told Newsday. “There was plenty of opportunity [for feedback].”

Conservative Councilman John Lorenzo, another opponent of the budget plan, said he declined to consider the proposal because “residents are already facing a serious affordability crisis.”

Lorenzo was among the four council members who voted to pierce the 2027 tax cap in September, however. He was joined by McElwee, Carpenter and Democratic Councilman Jorge Guadrón. Republican DawnMarie Kuhn voted against piercing the cap.

The town also pierced its cap in budgets for this year and 2025. Before then, Islip hadn’t exceeded the state cap since 2017.

Town officials so far are following a similar path to last year's in adopting the budget. Last fall, the proposed budget became the adopted budget by default because the board voted down a spending plan and failed to pass an alternative before the state’s deadline.

McElwee and other board members who voted against the 2026 budget also complained about being excluded from the budget process at the time.

Then-Councilman James O'Connor, a Republican who voted for the 2026 spending plan, criticized other board members for not proposing changes. He called their opposition “grandstanding” because opponents didn’t present an alternative.

The town board has until Nov. 20 to approve a 2027 spending plan. Otherwise the proposed budget will once again be automatically adopted, according to state law.

The board has a regularly scheduled meeting scheduled for Nov. 17.

By Sam Kmack

sam.kmack@newsday.com

Sam Kmack covers the Town of Islip for Newsday. He is a graduate of the University of Southern California and previously worked as a city watchdog reporter in the Phoenix metro area, as well as an investigative journalist at the Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting.