During last Wednesday's meeting of the Village of Mineola Board of Trustees, a startling announcement was made. Based on the annual audit of the village finances conducted by an independent auditor, the village closed the 2002-2003 fiscal year with a deficit in the General Fund portion of the budget. It was announced that the General Fund, as of May 31, 2003, had a fund balance of -$536,442.

At the end of the 2001-2002 fiscal year, the village budget's General Fund had a fund balance of $442,814, which means that during the 2002-2003 fiscal year, which runs from June 1 to May 31, the village overspent its budget out of the General Fund by close to $1 million to create a deficit of $536,442 in the General Fund.

The $442,814 fund balance became a -$536,442 deficit during the 2002-2003 budget, the last one passed by the village board under former Mayor John P. Colbert and the one before current Mayor Jack M. Martins took office.

Although Mayor Martins was a trustee when the budget was passed for the 2002-2003 fiscal year, he was the only member of the board to vote against its passing since he felt it was not a fiscally sound budget.

Mayor Martins believes this marks the first time in village history that the village closed out a fiscal year with a negative fund balance in its General Fund, and he wonders how it happened. "I don't understand it," he said.

The mayor did offer some reasons as to how it did happen. According to the mayor, the village overspent what it had budgeted for in some cases and in other cases did not realize the revenues it had projected.

Mayor Martins said the board, in passing the 2002-2003 budget, estimated it would receive $600,000 from parking meter revenues when the village had historically only gotten $400,000 in meter revenues. "You now have a $200,000 shortfall right off the bat," he said.

Also, the village underestimated its tipping fee costs for waste disposal. The 2002-2003 budget estimated the tipping fees to be $800,000 when, in fact, they were just under $1,000,000.

According to the independent auditor, Russ Vail, the village's 2002-2003 General Fund budget called for around $14,700,000 in expenses. However, according to Mr. Vail, the village spent around $15,300,000. The village, though, received around $14,200,000 in revenues.

Among the other factors that led to the General Fund deficit, according to Mr. Vail, was a reduction in the amount of interest income from the budget. Also, the village was supposed to receive $130,000 from the MTA for the sale of a access easement. However, that money never came in. In addition, the village also expended about $100,000 more than it anticipated for employee medical and health insurance benefits.

"Throughout the budget you have various other departmental budgets that are over, but the bottom line is we collected $14,200,000 and spent $15,200,000," Mr. Vail said.

The annual independent audit, which reveals the General Fund deficit in the 2002-2003 budget, will most likely be presented to the board of trustees and the public during the January public meeting. However, Mayor Martins said the issue needs to be addressed now.

Mayor Martins said that he doesn't intend to raise taxes to pay for the deficit. "I do no want to go back to the village taxpayers. I won't do it," he said.

The mayor and the board turned their attention to raising parking revenues. The village board unanimously voted to purchase seven electronic boxes at a cost of approximately $10,000 each to be placed in village parking fields to collect fees for parking. The meters that were in the parking fields will be placed on Jericho Turnpike, Willis Avenue and Mineola Boulevard. The board also voted to raise parking rates throughout the village from 25 cents per hour to 25 cents per half hour.

The village board will be discussing the shortfall in the upcoming meeting in hopes of coming up with ways to make up for the shortfall.