The Huntington Town Board opened its Friday meeting by recognizing public safety officers Anthony Lombardo and Tristan Lingner for performing CPR and using an AED to save a 15-year-old girl who stopped breathing at Heckscher Park. The girl was reported in stable condition at Huntington Hospital.
The board then held a public hearing on its 2027 preliminary budget, which proposes a $269.7 million operating budget and a tax levy of $169.9 million, about $22.5 million above the $147.4 million allowed under the state tax cap. Comptroller Jonas Wagner said the levy would rise 18.4%, compared with a 2.68% cap, and used one sample property to illustrate a combined annual increase of $291.05, noting the actual impact would vary by property.
Department heads told the board that staying under the cap would require roughly 16% operating cuts, affecting hundreds of positions. Officials described reduced maintenance of parks, beaches and athletic fields, and reduced maritime patrols and programs if the town stayed within the cap.
Resident Lucas Krasinski questioned the board's statements that it is "impossible to remain under the tax cap without cutting services" while also saying town finances "remain healthy." He also raised a resolution that reduced, from 12 years to six, the service requirement for fully paid lifetime health insurance for officials, appointees and their spouses, and said the town confirmed in writing that no cost estimate exists despite his request.
"Before you adopt this budget, publish what the six year rule costs and then use that to bring 18% down," Krasinski told the board.
Other speakers, including Cynthia Clark, Daniel Carpin, Ian Cohen and Peter Gollin, proposed alternatives such as an outside audit, higher zoning fees, bidding out a garbage contract and reduced garbage pickup frequency.
Resident Marge Acosta told the board she had only just learned that the board already voted in September to pierce the 2% tax cap, with Councilman Bernardo, Councilwoman Mari and the supervisor voting in favor, meaning public comments at the budget hearing would not change that outcome. "I'm now finding out that our comments here mean practically nothing," Acosta said.
The supervisor said Moody's requires the town to maintain a 35% reserve ratio to keep its AAA bond rating and that Huntington is currently at about 34.5%. The board is scheduled to adopt the final 2027 budget on Nov. 17.
The board also held a public hearing on a proposed local law to add a traffic-actuated signal at the Walt Whitman High School entrance on West Hills Road, with no speakers signed up, and declared 184 Vineyard Road and 6180 Jericho Turnpike blighted nuisance properties 5-0, and adopted a local law amending the town's property maintenance and nuisance code 5-0.
Members approved roughly 20 other routine resolutions, including appointments to the Board of Ethics, the LGBTQ+ Task Force and the Huntington Housing Authority, and scheduled Nov. 17 public hearings on a proposed 12-month extension of the townwide moratorium on new battery storage system permits and a proposed local law on the property tax exemption for volunteer firefighters and ambulance workers.