Mayor Jack M. Martins called a special meeting of the Mineola Board of Trustees on Friday for the purpose of voting on the village budget for the 2004-2005 fiscal year, which begins on June 1, 2004 and ends May 31, 2005. The village board passed the budget unanimously with Deputy Mayor Larry Werther making the motion and Trustee Lou Santosus providing the second.

The village board needed to pass a budget by May 1. However, the mayor was waiting for a word from Albany as to what the village would have to contribute to the state retirement fund. Since no answer was immediately imminent, the budget is funded to handle a significant increase in the pension fund.

When Mayor Martins presented the tentative 2004-2005, budget to the public on April 14, it called for a 7.9 percent tax increase, 3.8 of which was due to the estimated mandated increase in the state pension fund, with the village preparing for the worst case scenario. However, on Friday, Mayor Martins proposed cutting the tax increase down to 6.8 percent.

The budget that was passed last year by Mayor Martins, Deputy Mayor Werther and then trustee Steve Franzini for 2003-2004 is expected to end the fiscal year with an approximate $350,000 surplus, according to village treasurer Richard Dwyer.

The mayor proposed using some of the surplus to offset the 7.9 percent tax increase the proposed 2004-2005 budget called for. The line in the budget (679) that calls for the village's contribution for the pension fund was reduced from $717,000 to $597,000.

"We offer at least some relief to our residents from that 3.8 percent [pension fund] surcharge that we have to impose on the taxpayers," Mayor Martins said.

The mayor and the village board are hoping the village's state mandated contribution to the state retirement system will not be as high as feared. However, if it is, the mayor and the village board is prepared to dedicate a portion of the estimated surplus from the 2003-2004 budget to fund some of it instead of increase taxes by 7.9 percent.

"It still leaves us with a healthy surplus," Mayor Martins said.

Deputy Mayor Werther agreed. "The budget Mayor Martins put forward last year was a healthy, balanced budget. On top of that, the actions we took during the year to increase revenues for the village made it even better," he said. "Now, we do have a little bit of leverage. I represent the people of this village and I do whatever I can to make it easier on them as far as tax burdens."

Trustee Santosus was also in favor of using some of the surplus to fund the mandated increase on the state pension fund to ease the burden on the taxpayer.

Trustee Fairgrieve agreed with the mayor's suggestion.

Trustee Cusato thanked Mayor Martins for the time he put into the budget. "I definitely support what you have stated," he told the mayor.

The village board then approved a budget for the 2004-2005 fiscal year that calls for a 6.8 percent tax increase. The tax rate is $19.55 per $100 of assessed valuation as opposed to last year's $18.30 per $100 of assessed valuation. A large portion of the tax increase is due to items that are beyond the mayor's and board's control such as the contribution to the state's retirement system, an increase in garbage disposal fees and an increase in insurance costs.

The only thing the board wasn't unanimous on was the owner's fees for taxi licenses. With a budget of only $18,000,000, the board only disagreed on a line in the budget that called for $25,000 in revenue.

There are currently 45 cabs operating in the village (35 for All Island Taxi, nine for Long Island Checker Cab and one for Young's Taxi). The fees for a license to operate a cab is $150 per year. Mayor Martins and Deputy Mayor Werther proposed raising the taxi owner's fee to $500 to help cover the village's cost of issuing the licenses and monitoring the cabs.

Mayor Martins asked village counsel to come up with an estimate as to how much it costs the village per license to issue the license and monitor the cabs. Village counsel came up with a figure of $890 per license, which included attorney administrative fees, though not litigation fees.

The mayor, therefore, proposed collecting $500 a license from cab companies and then keeping an accurate account of what the village is actually spending to issue licenses and monitor cabs and increasing it accordingly so that the village residents and other businesses would not have to contribute to the taxi industry in Mineola.

However, Trustees Santosus, Fairgrieve and Cusato felt $400 was a more appropriate number since the highest fees brought out in discussions belonged to Freeport at $350 per year.

Trustees Santosus, Fairgrieve and Cusato therefore voted to impose the $400 fee as opposed to the $500 fee. The budget called for $25,000 in revenue for taxi fees with the $500 fee for licenses. However, with the fee of $400, the village is only going to receive $18,000 in revenues from taxi owner's licenses.