Hearing set to discuss Greenport mayor’s tentative $10.16M budget
Even though spending rises slightly in Mayor George Hubbard Jr.’s tentative 2017-18 budget, the tax rate in Greenport Village will decrease.
The proposed $10.16 million budget increases spending by $57,452, or half a percent, and the amount to be collected in taxes will not change.
However, the tax rate will drop by 1.44 percent because the assessed value of properties in the village has risen in the past year.
A public hearing on the tentative village budget will be held at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, April 11, at the Old Schoolhouse on Front Street.
“It’s pretty much the same,” Mr. Hubbard said. “There’s no real surprises.”
For someone who owns property assessed at $4,500 — equivalent to a market value of about $416,000 — the decrease would be about $126. Greenport residents also pay taxes to Southold Town for services like police and assessors, but those bills go out at a different time of year.
One of the changes in the budget calls for increasing the mayor’s salary from $18,000 to $30,000, while keeping the trustees’ salaries at $11,600.
In December, Mr. Hubbard had proposed a smaller raise for the mayor and increases for the four trustees, but they declined the raises and instead argued that the mayor should receive a bigger increase than what he proposed.
The mayor’s proposal also includes adding a part-time seasonal code enforcement officer and a part-time fire marshal.
Two new full-time positions — a marina office worker and a marina groundskeeper — are also reflected in the budget. Those positions were left vacant last year and are just being refilled, Mr. Hubbard said.
