Glen Cove's proposed $63M budget includes salary hike for EMS workers

The City of Glen Cove is proposing a $63.5 million budget for 2024 that would slightly raise the city's spending from this year’s $63.3 million budget while increasing the salaries of municipal workers. 

The budget decreases the total property tax levy from $33.2 million in the 2023 budget, to $33.1 million in 2024, continuing a gradual trend that began in 2022, when the tax levy was $33.3 million. 

The property tax rate for homeowners remained unchanged from the 2023 budget, while the commercial tax levy dipped 5.83%, Mayor Pamela Panzenbeck said during a budget presentation on Oct. 10.

Panzenbeck, who is up for reelection this year, said the changes are “a function of mathematics,” adding, “when assessments go up, taxes go down.”

The budget includes a $1 million increase to government employee health care benefits, rising from $7.6 million in 2023. The plan also includes an $884,000 bump in full-time salaries, including pay for EMS workers, members of the Police Benevolent Association and members of Nassau's Civil Service Employees Association. 

Panzenbeck said the salary increase for EMS workers was needed to remain competitive against a Nassau County program that elevated the pay of its EMS academy trainees. 

“If I do not increase their salaries, there’s a chance I will not be able to run an ambulance service in Glen Cove,” Panzenbeck said. 

Meanwhile, the city's debt service payments will be reduced by $1.1 million, partially due to reduced borrowing in 2022 and 2023, according to Panzenbeck. 

Panzenbeck anticipates the city will likely finish 2023 with $596,000 operating surplus. It would mark the third consecutive year Glen Cove maintained a surplus, potentially allowing it to be removed from the state’s fiscal stress list.

In a report released last month, the office of state Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli said Glen Cove was “susceptible” to financial stress, the lowest of three categories for localities in danger of budget problems. The North Shore city received a fiscal stress score of 47.1 out of 100 for the 2022 fiscal year, with 100 representing maximum stress. 

“We brought the number down from 50.4 to 47.1, so we’re very close to having no stress designation,” Panzenbeck said during an interview.

George Maragos, the former Nassau County comptroller and current Glen Cove mayoral candidate, said there is an overly optimistic projection of an 84% increase in building department revenue, creating a possible deficit issue in the plan. The revenue of the city's building department was about $602,000 in the 2023 budget but is expected to reach $1.1 million next year.

"There’s a lot of inefficiency and wasteful spending” in the latest budget, said Maragos, who added that an effort to “modernize the administration” by adjusting positions to improve spending efficiency is needed. An example, he said, was the director of the building department being budgeted as a part-time position while earning a $200-per-hour salary, according to City Council documents.

City Council members will vote on the budget Tuesday night at Glen Cove City Hall. 

By Joseph Ostapiuk

joseph.ostapiuk@newsday.com@OstapiukJ