The Smithtown Town Board voted Wednesday to authorize advertising for a public hearing on its preliminary 2027 budget and enacted a local law overriding New York state's 2% property tax cap for the coming fiscal year.
The budget as presented projects an average annual tax increase of $117.65, or 6.44%, for Smithtown homeowners. Town officials said $23.12 of that comes from a court-ordered shift in how LIPA properties are taxed, with the remaining roughly $94 attributed to the town's own budget increases.
A public information video played at the meeting said more than $3 million of the increase stems from unfunded state mandates, including rising health insurance and pension costs and state-enacted tier six retirement changes.
Because of what the town clerk described as an administrative error in which required legal notice was not forwarded to the town's paper of record, the formal public hearing on the budget was rescheduled for Nov. 12 at 7 p.m. at the Senior Citizens Center. Comments made at Wednesday's meeting were accepted for the record ahead of that hearing. The town clerk said the error occurred because the notice "wasn't forwarded to the Smithtown News, our paper of record."
The supervisor told the board the budget must be voted on by Nov. 20, with a vote expected at a Nov. 19 meeting.
The supervisor also detailed recent storm costs, saying a snow blizzard around Feb. 22-24 cost $1.4 million to clear and a late-September nor'easter that brought down 217 trees cost $2.2 million, saying those expenses underscore the need for town reserves.
Several residents criticized the budget during the public comment period. One speaker, identified in the record as Randy Weiner, said the board's framing of the choice between raising taxes and cutting jobs amounted to "gross negligence," and said, "this will make the lives of everybody in Smithtown harder."
Irwin Eisen, who said he had also spoken at last year's budget hearing, asked the board what departments could be consolidated and said the board's explanations had not changed. "The narrative I tell you has got to change," he said. "The taxpayers here deserve better."
Eisen, who identified himself as a certified public accountant, returned to speak again later in the meeting and said the town had raised $57 million in debt since 2019, with annual debt payments approaching $7 million. "We're almost at $7 million this year in debt payments," he said.
Not all comment was critical of the town's spending. Robert Anspach spoke in favor of continued investment in local sports fields and recreational facilities, saying "every dollar spent improving our fields is an investment in our children, their future, and the strength of our community."