East Williston has proposed a 6.982% tax rate increase to fund the village’s 2025-2026 fiscal year budget.
Bonnie Parente, the village’s mayor, said the increase was partially due to a recalibration of the village’s books after they had not been kept as accurately and neatly as they needed to be by the village’s previous treasurer. She said the bookkeeping issues were part of the reason why last year’s tax increase was significantly lower.
For the past 10 years, East Williston has raised taxes an average of less than 1% per year. In a letter to residents, the mayor said village costs had increased over 25% during that time, while property taxes rose a total of 9.47%.
Parente said this year’s projected tax raise will be roughly $173 annually for the average household.
Part of the increase was also due to the cost of hiring auditors and a new, full-time treasurer, Scott Cunningham, to fix the prior mistakes. Parente emphasized that no funds had ever been lost or mishandled. They had just not all been documented accurately, she said.
“We had our auditors pull everything together to recreate our books so that they were an accurate reflection of reality,” Parente said, describing the process the village took to come up with this year’s draft budget and tax increase.
Other significant budget increases included those to the village’s contingency fund, the village’s water fund, traffic control, state employee retirement benefits, parks and recreation, and bands concerts and celebrations, which Cunningham said were partially attributed to the village’s 100 year birthday celebration.
Parente’s letter to residents explained that some of the raised expenses included required increases to sanitation and recycling contracts, municipal insurance, and healthcare costs, as well as investments in village buildings and infrastructure, including the village office, library, and fire department.
Notable budget cuts included one to the village’s library fund, one which library board members made sure to note in the public comment section of the night.
Board members said that though the village had not specifically cut funding for the library’s programming but had simply reduced funding for the library generally, the library had no choice but to cut its programming budget with a smaller general budget.
After the meeting, the mayor said she might reconsider the library fund cut.
The board of trustees will meet in March and April before finalizing a budget in April.
