The Village of Roslyn board of trustees approved their 2001-2002 budget at a public hearing last Wednesday night. Mayor John Durkin said the new budget, which saw a decrease in spending from the previous year was "realistic and will work." But, try as they might, the BOT could not prevent a small tax increase. The 2.99 percent increase was explained by BOT member Marshall Bernstein, who singled out sewage expenses as the budgetary item that made a zero tax increase impossible to achieve.

Trustee Bernstein noted that the BOT was able to make actual cuts in expenditures. The modified 2000-2001 budget saw expenditures reach $3,934,646, a number higher than the $3,537,811 the village will spend in the 2001-2002 fiscal year. "It has been my desire to get away from the attitude we have in government," Trustee Bernstein said, adding that this attitude meant that "every year, we have to have a tax increase." He noted that in recent years, the BOT has managed to achieve zero tax increases in the annual budget. The BOT, he said, hoped to maintain that same zero tax increase in this year's budget. The BOT's efforts were hampered by decreasing revenues, coupled with decreased assessed values in real estate properties.

Most of all, there is the matter of sewage expenses. "We know we are highly taxed in this village," Trustee Bernstein said. "This has to do with the sewer issue." He said that the sewer system had been old and decaying up to two decades ago when then-Mayor Elias Spielman made a deal with Nassau County in which the village would pay the county for treating the village's sewage. In time, however, the village and the county came to loggerheads over the issue. Litigation followed and the village lost in court, with damages, after some negotiations, being pared down to $8 million. To pay the county, the village had to float bonds and make up the costs in its annual budgets. As Trustee Bernstein noted, sewer system appropriations amount to the single largest budgetary item in the entire document. Sewer system numbers for this year's budget are $555,000, the same as in fiscal year 2000-2001.

Trustee Bernstein admitted that the sewer issue will continue to be a problem for the village. The county is currently pumping and treating the village's sewage. However, the village hopes someday to repair their sewers and engage in some preventative maintenance so that when they do have full control over them there will be no problems of leakage into, say, Hempstead Harbor. "Taxes are high because of the sewer problem," Trustee Bernstein declared.

In the meantime, Mayor Durkin said the village would continue to look for funding from both the state and federal government for sewage and road repairs. Village Attorney John Spellman added that Nassau County is due a large refund from the feds; some of that money may go to sewage treatment, an action that would ease the village's situation.

On the appropriations side of the budget, savings were made in the board of trustee budget, plus the village justice's, mayor's, village attorney's, engineer's and clerk/treasurer's offices. A major decrease was also obtained in the special items section of the Government Support budget. In all, Government Support expenditures were finalized at $925,810, down significantly from the previous budget year's number of $1,354,857.

The fire department's budget managed to find savings of nearly $30,000. The safety inspection budget was up slightly, but spending cuts in fire department issues helped the entire Public Safety budget find savings. The street and sidewalks section of the Transportation budget fell by $20,000, while the off street parking segment saw cuts of $5,000, both numbers contributed to savings in the entire Transportation budget. Likewise, smaller savings were made in the Culture & Recreation budget. The BOT also managed to hold the line on spending in both the Home & Community and Debt Service budgets. The only department that saw a slight increase was Employee Benefits, which rose to $146,950, up from $124,000 in fiscal 2000-2001.

The village hopes to raise $2,206,411 in real property taxes for the coming fiscal year. Estimated revenue other than property taxes comes to $961,400, with the money coming from the usual assortment of meter fines, other fines, licenses, permits, sale of equipment, state aid, grants, and a mortgage tax.