Smithtown residents oppose plan to exceed tax cap

Smithtown residents are urging town officials to reconsider next year's budget proposal, which exceeds the state tax cap.

The average homeowner can expect a tax bill increase of about $160 annually, according to town budget data. The salaries for elected town officials would rise roughly 4% under the $141.4 million spending plan. The proposal increases the tax levy by 10.7%.

When Supervisor Ed Wehrheim, a Republican, presented the budget last month, he said the town had no choice but to raise the tax levy. If it stayed within the cap, the town would have had to lay off 46 employees and cut services.

A public hearing Tuesday at the Smithtown Senior Center on Middle Country Road brought out a crowd of 70 people.

Kathi LaPointe said she opposed the tax cap hike, arguing the town’s budget “should reflect both fiscal responsibility and fairness to taxpayers.”

“The tax cap exists to protect residents from unchecked increases, and breaching it should only happen under extraordinary circumstances with full transparency and justification,” LaPointe said. She said town employees should not get raises “during difficult economic times.”

LaPointe said the town should consider other ways to save money.

Andrew Greene, of Smithtown, said town officials should apply “more due diligence, more transparency” and innovation. Continued tax increases will result in young people fleeing Suffolk County because of the high cost of living, he said.

“That youth group, my generation, we will not just scare them away, we will force them to leave Long Island, to leave Suffolk County and to leave Smithtown. It will happen if we continue this tax burden,” Greene said.

Dolores Riconda, of Kings Park, said the town should consider cutting wasteful spending and freezing salaries.

“There’s still people, millions of people, still out of work, and now you want to impose on us higher taxes?” she asked the board.

Several town employees warned that without proper funding, cuts for services would be drastic.

Mike Engleman, the town's solid waste coordinator and director of waste management, said his department serves 37,000 homes. If the town is forced to make cuts, scheduled waste pickups would have to be scaled back.

Joe Arico, director of buildings and grounds, said cutting staff would mean delayed openings at all town facilities, parks and beaches. There would be staff and programming cuts at the popular Hoyt Farm Nature Preserve, he said.

Doreen Perrino, program director for the town's senior citizen department, said the senior center would be “dramatically” affected by funding cuts.

The town board closed the hearing and is expected to vote on the budget on Nov. 13, Wehrheim said.

After the hearing, Wehrheim said he still supported the budget as is.

“I heard the residents, I understand what they’re saying," he said in an interview. "But I just believe that those cuts would be severe."