Rothwell pushes to slash Halpin’s proposed budget tax levy hike by a third

The Riverhead Town Board will vote Tuesday on six amendments to Supervisor Jerry Halpin’s $121 million preliminary budget for 2027 to lower the proposed 2.79% tax levy hike by 35%. 

Councilman Ken Rothwell, who is challenging Mr. Halpin for his supervisor seat in the upcoming November election, submitted the revisions at last Thursday’s work session — proposing to reduce the levy increase by about a percentage point.

Overall, Mr. Rothwell said reduction to 1.79% consists of multiple entities, such as street lighting and highway, while the General Fund — the town’s largest operating fund — decreased to 1.73%.

The primary goal of these amendments is to lower the tax levy without cutting essential services, Mr. Rothwell told the Riverhead News-Review on Monday. 

Citing the $4.8 million in investment returns on the town’s fund balance last year, Mr. Rothwell explained the amendments use interest earned for one-time purchases, such as mechanical equipment for the fire marshal and a new vehicle for building and grounds. Nearly $1.2 million of these funds are going towards digitizing the building department. 

“Everybody’s getting what they want, but it’s when you have invested returns and you are continuously putting it in fund balance, and fund balance is growing, at that point, that money, that invested balance, belongs to the taxpayers,” Mr. Rothwell said at the Oct. 15 work session. “We don’t want to overtax in any way, so we can utilize some of those returns.” 

The tax levy is the amount raised through property taxes. According to Mr. Halpin’s tentative proposal, the combined property tax levy of the three main townwide funds — general, highway and street lighting — would rise $1.70 million, or 2.79%, to $62.88 million. 

Under Rothwell’s amendments, the town wide tax levy would go down by just over $643,000, he said in a phone interview on Monday. 

The first resolution removes $53,300 from building and grounds equipment, $50,000 from fire marshal equipment and $55,000 for refuse vehicles, taking $158,300 off the General Fund property tax levy. 

Mr. Rothwell is also proposing a significant tax levy reduction to the General Fund by $395,941, including $165,941 for building inspection fees, $250,000 in interest and earnings, and $50,000 in fines and forfeited bail. This amendment also reduces the amount of fund balance to support the budget by $70,000. 

Another amendment slices just over $91,000 from the Street Lighting District’s tax levy in the 2027 tentative budget. Instead, Mr. Rothwell is proposing using the Street Lighting fund balance to pay for equipment. 

At the request of the town highway superintendent, an additional merit increase for an administrative employee would add $1,949 to the General Fund tax levy to cover that expense, including Social Security and retirement costs. 

Another resolution is a proposed budget transfer of $5,392 from the Highway Fund’s snow contractual account to cover an employee promotion and a merit raise for another. This does not change the tax levy. 

The Riverhead Town Board also proposes to provide $120,000 in funding in a sixth amendment for a possible change in dental plans for CSEA employees in the 2027 preliminary budget. This revision would also not change the tax levy. 

“When the supervisor did his budget, the highway workers are getting certain merit raises through their CSEA contract, but what often happens is the office personnel doesn’t get that with their contract, so they end up being kind of left behind,” Mr. Rothwell said at the work session. “We’re making sure that they’re also able to keep up with the cost of living, and there’s no unfair treatment to any employees.” 

In an interview on Monday, Mr. Rothwell said these proposed adjustments aim to utilize the fund balance without lowering it, as there will still be an increase in the fund balance compared to last year.

Back in 2022 under former town supervisor Yvette Aguiar, Mr. Rothwell and his town board members at the time suggested six amendments for the 2023 budget. He voted against the adoption of this budget — his reason at the time being there was not enough work session discussions. This budget ultimately passed and pierced the state tax cap. 

Last November, the Town Board overrode the tax cap to approve the 2026 budget, which raised the tax levy 7.74% and the townwide property tax rate 6.74%. During last year’s discussions of former supervisor Tim Hubbard’s 2026 budget, there were no adjustments due to much uncertainty when it came to the interest rates. 

“Our budget, at this point it’s easier, in hindsight, to say was overly conservative, we underestimated our revenues and underestimated return on investment, and so we did really well,” Mr. Rothwell said. “Quite honestly, having $4.8 million dollars in invested returns, we could have kept the taxes a little bit lower last year, but you don’t know that until the end of the year.” 

With the guidance of his personal financial advisors who reviewed the public 2027 budget, Mr. Rothwell said he was told this tentative spending plan was still “very conservative.” He feels confident the amendments will pass on Tuesday with the supporting votes of the other three council members, who also worked on the budget amendments. 

It is unknown how Mr. Halpin plans to vote. The supervisor did not respond to a request for comment by press time. His first budget he is proposing for 2027 would end four consecutive years of Riverhead overriding the state tax cap.

Mr. Rothwell describes this year’s budgeting process as “difficult,” claiming there was a lack of communication from Mr. Halpin. Unlike previous years where the board was involved in discussions earlier, the councilman said Mr. Halpin did not share his budget intentions until they were submitted to the town clerk back in September. 

“What happens is you’re much shorter on the time frame to take a closer look at everything,” Mr. Rothwell said. “There’s a very short period of time that you have to make amendments to a budget — as soon as we looked at it, we said we can do better.” 

The Riverhead Town Board can review the tentative budget and make whatever changes they deem necessary and are consistent with the provisions of the law. Following this review and revision process, once approved by the town board, the tentative budget becomes the preliminary budget. 

A public hearing on the preliminary budget is set for Thursday, Nov. 5. The Riverhead Town Board must adopt the preliminary budget as amended no later than Nov. 20. This becomes the official annual budget. Any changes to the annual budget during the new calendar year must be approved in a resolution by the Town Board. 

The next Riverhead Town Board meeting where these amendments will be on the agenda is on Tuesday, Oct. 20 at 6 p.m.