The board of trustees of the Roslyn area's two sleepy villages, Roslyn Harbor and Roslyn Estates, have also debated and passed 2002-2003 fiscal year budgets for their respective towns.

As with the Village of Roslyn, BOT members in those villages have striven to hold the line on both spending and taxing. Such budgets reflect the wishes of local homeowners and businesses; they also were written with Nassau County's fiscal problems in mind, not to mention the coming reassessment of residential and commercial properties in the county.

The Village of Roslyn Harbor reports a 2002-2003 budget of $500,650. The village tax rate stands at 4.94 percent. According to village officials, this represents the eighth straight year that Roslyn Harbor residents will see no tax increase in their local budget.

Property and franchise tax revenues will come to $357,770 in the upcoming fiscal year. Additional revenues will come from licenses and permits ($36,000), utilities gross receipts tax ($20,000), and parking lot fees ($15,700). The village expects to gain $22,000 through general fines, plus it will be the recipient of $35,000 in state aid, which it includes for budgeted revenues.

Roslyn Harbor Mayor Gerson Strassberg was especially pleased that the village was able, once again, to hold the line on tax increases. He said the current tax rate is one of the "three or four" lowest among all the 64 incorporated villages in Nassau County. Furthermore, keeping tax rates unchanged for eight years running represents "nothing short of a miracle." He joked that the BOT is made up of "penny pinchers" who, due to county financial realities have to spend money "very carefully." The mayor further claimed that there's never been the case of any other village in Nassau County going eight years without a tax increase.

On the spending side, fire protection takes the biggest slice of the budget, coming to $140,000. The cumulative surplus budget comes next, set at $94,000. Other items of note include the clerk/treasurer budget ($83,450), snow removal ($50,000), the "law" budget ($50,000), employee benefits ($38,850), building inspection ($37,425), street maintenance ($25,000), the contingency budget ($25,000), and insurance ($22,000).

The Village of Roslyn Estates passed a budget totaling $995,525 in expenditures. Real estate taxes are expected to take in $775,740 in revenues. The tax rate is 10.78 cents per hundred dollars for assessed real estate. According to village officials, such a tax rate remains unchanged from last year's budget.

Other revenue will come from interest on deposits ($30,000), permits ($22,500), dues from other funds, including the tennis facility ($15,000), and a state aid mortgage tax ($15,000).

As with Roslyn Harbor, the fire service budget, which in Roslyn Estates, includes insurance, service awards, and "other expenses," is large, totaling over $165,000. However, it does not represent the biggest chunk of the expenditures approved by the BOT. The "streets" segment of the budget---which itself includes equipment, road renewal, gas and oil, supplies, and repairs to trucks and equipment---comes to nearly $200,000.

Other items prominent in the budget include sanitation ($130,000), debt service, both principal and interest ($96,225), the clerk treasurer's budget ($99,300), the village attorney's budget ($57,500), and "village general" ($63,300). The latter segment includes expenditures for an employee's retirement fund, Social Security, worker's compensation, unemployment insurance, and health insurance.