Oyster Bay approves $342.8 million budget that freezes property taxes
Oyster Bay Town Hall, seen here in September. Credit: Newsday/Howard Schnapp
The Town of Oyster Bay on Tuesday approved a $342.8 million budget for 2025 that freezes property taxes — bucking the trend of tax increases in a number of Long Island towns.
Spending will rise by $3.3 million more in 2025, up slightly from the 2024 budget of $339.5 million. The total tax levy will be nearly $233 million, a drop of $671 from last year, according to the budget proposal.
The vote was 7-0.
Employee salaries are expected to reach $102.9 million in 2025, up from $100.2 million in 2024, according to town budget documents. The town’s debt payments will total $84 million in 2025, down from $88.2 million in 2024. Spending on employee benefits is expected to rise by nearly $6 million in 2025, according to the budget.
Rob Darienzo, the town’s budget director, said the jump "is entirely in the area of medical benefits."
"Costs have risen roughly 8-10% over recent years and a similar increase is projected for 2025," he said in an email. "The worst part is that we have no idea what they will be when preparing the budget so we estimate it will be similar to recent years."
Property taxes for the average home will be the same as in 2024 — $144 a month, or $1,728 annually, Darienzo said.
The town is expecting other expenses to increase, including a jump in legal fees from $2 million to $2.5 million. The town expects the cost of IT maintenance to jump from $3.3 million to $4.2 million.
Darienzo said the spending plan does not include any one-shot revenues, such as federal pandemic aid.
All five East End towns are planning to pierce the tax cap in 2025, citing the rising cost of employee benefits as a factor for proposed increases, Newsday reported. Brookhaven and Babylon Towns are planning to pierce the cap. Earlier this month, the Town of Hempstead voted to pierce the cap and approved a budget that raised property tax levies by 12.1%.
Oyster Bay has $100 million in reserves, according to the town's budget proposal. The town bolstered its finances, "through strong conservative budgeting practices," Oyster Bay Supervisor Joseph Saladino said in a statement. The town is paying off debt service more quickly and restricting new borrowing to capital projects, Saladino said.
In 2016, then-town Supervisor John Venditto hiked the tax levy by 11.5% in an effort to reduce the deficit by $44 million. The town hasn't raised taxes since, officials have said.
The 2025 budget includes an investment in downtown Hicksville, with streetscape and walkability projects expected to begin in 2025, according to Saladino.
"We will continue to transform Hicksville into a vibrant downtown for millennials, young families and senior citizens," Saladino said.
Over the summer, Moody's Investor Service upgraded Oyster Bay’s credit rating from A1 to Aa3 and said the town’s financial outlook was "positive."
Ken Girardin, research director of the Empire Center for Public Policy, a conservative-leaning Albany think tank, said Oyster Bay's practice of keeping property taxes flat can continue "almost indefinitely." However, he said, the tax base must continue to expand.
"Growth is key," Girardin said. "If property values drop or the town was to lose a significant taxpayer, that would be a challenge that the board would have to take up."
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