North Hempstead supervisor pitches nearly $164M budget

North Hempstead Town Supervisor Jennifer DeSena is proposing a $163.9 million budget that includes a decrease in taxes for property owners and an increase in funding for parks and senior citizen programs. 

The average homeowner who lives in the unincorporated areas of the town would save about $183 annually under the proposal, while those in incorporated villages would save about $38, according to DeSena's office.

The proposed budget allocates $91.9 million to the town’s general fund. It proposes $41.9 million in funding for its outside village fund, which provides services to residents who live in unincorporated areas of the town that include road maintenance, code enforcement and building inspections.

DeSena's proposal also allocates $30.1 million for 20 town-operated special districts such as parks and water districts. 

The overall proposal is an increase of about $1 million compared with this year’s adopted spending plan of $162.8 million and would use money from the town’s reserve fund and projected surpluses to decrease taxes, according to the supervisor.

“Residents are still hurting from high inflation, higher prices of food and higher prices of everything and that’s why we were determined to give taxpayers the relief that they need," DeSena said Tuesday in an interview. 

Town council members received the budget Friday, are reviewing the plan and declined to comment on it, town spokesman Gordon Tepper said Tuesday.

The proposed budget also includes an increase in funding of about $180,000 for senior citizen services and programs and an increase of $1.5 million for the parks budget, DeSena noted. 

The town is expected to have a nearly $2 million surplus this year, according to the town’s Director of Finance Paul Wood, who is serving as acting comptroller. He said the surplus is thanks in part to the "sale of excess property."

Wood is helping in the budget process for the second year in a row, following the August resignation of Kristen Schwaner, who served as comptroller for just four months.

The tentative budget also includes salaries for about 474 employees.

Under DeSena's proposal, several departments that include her office and the public safety and information technology departments would get a budget increase of more than $100,000, while the "Yes We Can" Community Center would get a more than $200,000 bump in funding.

Many of the increases are because of payroll adjustments for raises the town board approved this year, town officials said. The IT department’s budget increase is due to purchases of software licenses and hardware.

The town board will hold a budget work session Oct. 17.

The public can comment at the Oct. 18 regular board meeting and a Nov. 2 hearing, with the board scheduled to vote on the final budget before Election Day.