Riverhead preliminary budget met with mixed reactions

While some residents voiced their support for the 2025 preliminary budget at a public hearing held by the Riverhead Town Board last Thursday, others expressed dissatisfaction with the town’s financial decisions and management — which resulted in one Aquebogue resident being escorted out of the meeting by police after he shared his criticisms. 

Riverhead Town has proposed a tax levy increase of 4.1% and plans to pierce 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. Last year’s budget saw a 4.86% tax increase.

The pierced tax cap mainly has to do with the general fund spending in the budget, which would increase $4.1 million over 2024. This is largely attributed to rising insurance premiums and retirement costs, as well as contractual obligations to replace old vehicles for the police, fire marshal and building and grounds departments.

On the impact this budget has on taxpayers, Jeanette DiPaola, the town’s financial administrator, calculated that a house with a value of $720,000 will incur an estimated townwide property tax increase of 80 cents per day — or $288 a year — and the cost of residential waste will increase to roughly 18 cents per day. 

“We cut it as much as we could, we knew we were going to bust the cap, obviously, all the East End towns did, as many other towns did in Suffolk County, all kind of in the same boat, and all kind of because of the same reasons,” Mr. Hubbard said at the public hearing. “We’re doing the best we can, and we realize people are hurting — there’s no fluff in this budget to say that we wasted money anywhere because we really did not.” 

In her opening statements at the public hearing, Ms. DiPaola said there is a $400,000 increase for debt service, which relates to the principal payment due at the beginning of next year for the new Town Hall building at 4 West Second St. She also noted a $100,000 increase for insurance premiums, property insurance, general liability and workers compensation in the budget. 

The Riverhead Police Department constitutes 48% of the new budget proposal, which includes $175,000 for five new police vehicles. Ms. DiPaola added at the public hearing that the town is spending $200,000 more on new radios, which is due to Suffolk County changing its radio frequency system — making the town police’s current radios obsolete.

Mr. Hubbard said the Town Board is in conversations with Congressman Nick LaLota about federal funding for new police vehicles next year. The congressman had money allocated out already this year, Mr. Hubbard said, but if the town can acquire these funds next year, it would be “a huge help.” Other ways the town has investigated minimizing costs included meeting with Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney about potentially acquiring confiscated vehicles that could be used in Riverhead. 

“The police [department] is a large part of our budget and the reason is for the last 10 years, everybody said more police, and as a result of bail reform, we need a lot more police,” Councilman Bob Kern said. “We’re arresting the same person five times a week, in many cases — you ask for security and we’re giving it to you because it’s well deserved in this community.” 

Salary increases make up 7% of the budget proposal to retain workers and hopefully attract more qualified candidates to Riverhead Town, officials said. As previously reported, Mr. Hubbard said 30 of the 172 full-time employees in Riverhead government resigned or retired just this year alone, “several citing salary as the reason for leaving.” 

Aside from the $1.4 million total salary increase to members of the police department, salary increases are also proposed for the Town Council itself. The proposed budget would hike the supervisor’s salary by 8.7%, from $115,148 to $125,148 and board members’ pay by 7.5% , 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 would also get increases of 5.6%, from $88,038 to $93,038. 

If the budget is approved, two town council members, Joann Waski and Kenneth Rothwell, shared at the meeting that if the budget is approved, they will not take their pay raises. Ms. Waski said her reason for declining is because her business outside her town position serves as her primary source of income. 

“If I have the opportunity to be able to offset something else within the town for that little additional amount of money, I’d rather give it back into a future budget,” Ms. Waski said. 

Mr. Rothwell, who has served on the Town Board for nearly four years, said he is not in the position “for the money,” but to be part of the community and its “great projects.” Both said that although they are personally not taking pay raises, they support the proposal. 

Councilwoman Denise Merrifield said the town supervisor’s salary has not risen in nearly 15 years, and it’s been almost nine years for council positions, which she believes is due to past criticism from the public and elected officials’ discomfort with giving themselves a raise. She added that salary increases for town positions should attract other community members who are interested in those jobs. 

“It’s difficult when we are the ones approving a raise because it’s often very difficult to approve a raise for yourself,” Ms. Merrifield said. “It’s very easy to recognize the talents of other individuals and reward them, but it’s often criticized when we have to do it for ourselves — it shouldn’t have to be that way.” 

Joan Cear of Jamesport called the tax hike “excessive” and urged the Town Board to look at alternative sources of revenue to combat rising costs, such as implementing a sales tax on agritourism entertainment functions and a local bed tax on hotel rooms and other forms of short-term accommodations in the area. 

Mike Foley of Reeves Park said he understood the argument for salary increases in the proposed budget because employees leaving Riverhead for higher paying positions elsewhere is a continuous problem that “is going to get worse” if not addressed. 

To avoid multiple major expenses piling up in single budgets, Kathy Berezny of Riverhead suggested the board create longer-term plans — evaluating expenses for the next three years, for example — to prevent piercing the tax cap again. 

After criticizing Supervisor Tim Hubbard’s leadership and his “decade of poor decisions” on the town board, Ronald Hariri of Aquebogue was escorted out of the meeting by police, at Mr. Hubbard’s request. 

Mr. Hubbard told Mr. Hariri to step away from the podium after he called the supervisor “an absolute disgrace,” but he refused. Before he was ushered out by police, Mr. Hubbard asked for the audio to be muted and livestream video of the meeting to be turned off. Those watching the broadcast could not see Mr. Hariri leaving the room, only a screen that read “Technical Difficulties: Please Stand By.” 

“The Town board meetings [are] not going to be circus acts anymore. If you come in here and you decide to act like a clown, act like a circus, you will be removed,” Mr. Hubbard said, addressing the incident at the end of the meeting. “If you can’t come to the microphone and be respectful and civil, stay home. It was sad what happened and it’s unfortunate someone had to be removed, but it won’t be tolerated.” 

Total appropriations for the proposed 2025 budget are $109,519,600, up $5,893,300 over the 2024 budget. The full 2025 preliminary budget document can be viewed on the town’s website, under the Accounting department tab.