Riverhead proposes 7.9% tax hike for 2025

Riverhead officials on Thursday presented what Supervisor Tim Hubbard called a “basic, no-frills budget” that nevertheless pierces the 2% statewide property tax cap with a 7.9% hike — the town’s largest increase since the statewide tax cap was enacted in 2012. If passed, the budget would increase general fund spending by $4.1 million over 2024.

Mr. Hubbard said that “in years past, it’s always great to put up a budget with no tax increase, but you’re going to pay for it somewhere.”

He said the proverbial can was kicked down the road “one or two too many times, and … now we’re at the end of the road.” Last year’s budget saw a 4.86% tax hike.

Mr. Hubbard said he had warned all the town’s department heads at the start of the process that 2025 was going to be “a really, really tough year.

“I asked them not to give me outrageous requests,” he said, because those requests “would have been sent back right away … what they presented was a basic, no-frills budget.”

Details of the budget proposal can be found on the town’s website. Total appropriations for the proposed 2025 budget are $109,519,600, up $5,893,300 over the 2024 budget.

Sounding resolute if a bit defensive, officials said state-mandated hikes in insurance and retirement obligations were beyond their control, that increased spending on the police department was necessary and that municipal salaries had to increase to keep Riverhead competitive with surrounding towns’ government wages.

Mr. Hubbard said that no existing services or programs are being cut in the proposed budget, but that Riverhead is not alone in facing increased costs.

“Several surrounding municipalities will find the need to also pierce the tax cap for 2025.”

Not including the police department — which constitutes 48% of the new budget proposal — Mr. Hubbard said that just this year, 30 of the 172 full time positions in Riverhead government resigned or retired, “several citing salary as the reason for leaving.”

He said that salary increases constitute 7% of the proposed 2025 budget.

“It is very difficult to get people to come to town because the salaries are not competitive with other towns and other jobs,” town council member Denise Merrifield  said. “So it is very difficult, and we’re constantly going through lists to get people to come on board out here.”

Some of the proposed salary increases are for the Town Council itself. The proposed budget would hike the supervisor’s salary by 8.7%, from $115,148 to $125,148 and by 7.5% for town council members, from $48,955 to $52,627. Town justice salaries would rise 5.6%, from $88,800 to $93,038. The town tax receiver and the town clerk salaries would also be hiked by 5.6% from $88,038 to $93,038. 

If passed, the budget would raise residential property taxes for a property valued at $720,000 by $288 a year. The same property would also pay an additional $63 a year more for residential garbage and recycling pickup.

Town financial administrator Jeanette DiPaola said at the presentation that police health insurances costs are “going up drastically,” rising at least 9% next year, on the heels of a 14% increase in the 2024 budget.

The proposed budget includes $175,000 for new police vehicles, and $150,000 for new radios, so that they correspond with a new county radio system.

Officials said they would be scheduling public hearings on the proposed budget once residents have had a chance to absorb the new document.