Riverhead Town Board OKs budget with 4.86% tax hike that exceeds state cap

Town of Riverhead officials approved a budget Wednesday that will pierce the state 2% tax cap for the second consecutive year.

The $69.4 million spending plan increases spending by $5.5 million over the current budget and requires a 4.86% tax levy hike. The town is also using $2 million in reserves and an estimated $1.1 million increase in revenues to offset the increase.

The town board voted 5-0 on both adopting the budget and overriding the tax limit.

“We had to make some tough choices,” Supervisor Yvette Aguiar said at the meeting. “However, no services were diminished.”

Most town employees are slated to get raises after the town settled contracts with the Civil Service Employees Association and town Police Benevolent Association in 2023. The budget also adds five police officers.

Councilman Ken Rothwell said at a budget hearing Nov. 9 that the town board is “playing catch up” to increase wages and retain town employees.

“Our payroll was just substantially too low for too long for too many town employees,” he said. “People can’t make a living doing $39,000 and $40,000 a year — it just doesn’t work on Long Island anymore.”

Town financial officer William Rothaar said rising employee retirement and health insurance costs also factored into the increase and are projected to increase by $1.8 million next year.

For the average Riverhead home, which officials estimate has an assessed value of $50,000, property taxes will rise about $135 next year.

The current budget pierced the 2% tax cap by 1.31% and Riverhead did not raise taxes in 2022.

In the Town of Southold, Supervisor Scott Russell initially proposed a $56.8 million budget that kept taxes flat. Town officials ultimately voted 6-0 on Nov. 8 to adopt a $57.1 million budget that will increase the tax levy by 0.35%.