Rye Brook Board Approves $17 Million Budget For Coming Fiscal Year

Rye Brook taxes will increase by 2.28 percent in the coming fiscal year after the village board voted Tuesday to unanimously approve its new budget.

The tax hike will raise the overall budget to more than $17 million for this village of about 9,000 residents. That's almost $400,000 more than the village's $16.6 million revenue -- according to the budget, the gap will be closed with funds from Rye Brook's coffers. According to data released by village hall, Rye Brook's municipal government has a reserve fund of more than $2 million, a figure similar to the emergency fund reserves of other local municipalities of similar size, such as Larchmont.

Mayor Joan Feinstein said Rye Brook is staring down many of the same challenges faced by other local governments in the current economic climate. While smaller villages like Rye Brook have built up reserves to tide them over during turbulent economic times, those funds can't be counted on over the long term. Many local leaders are hoping to ride out the rough times without having to cut back on services to the community, and Feinstein said Rye Brook is no different.

"It's a tough year, and I'm afraid we're going to have at least one more difficult year, unfortunately," she said at Tuesday night's meeting at village hall. "It's that difficult balancing between keeping the village and the programs, and the condition of the village up to par, because many people moved here because of the services we give and the look of the community."

Rye Brook employs New York State's Homestead Tax Option, which is designed to prevent a larger portion of a municipality's tax burden from shifting over to residential property taxes after revaluation. Because of that, there are two slightly different tax rates -- one for homestead (residential) properties, and the other for commercial and industrial properties. The homestead rate for the 2010-2011 fiscal year is $4.19 per $1,000 of assessed property under the new budget, while the non-homestead rate is pegged at $6.59. *

Rye Brook's tax increase for the new fiscal year is lower than some neighboring towns and villages, but Feinstein said she expects critcism.

"No matter what we do," she said, "we'll probably be criticized, but that's okay."

Trustee Paul Rosenberg credited Chris Bradbury, the village administrator, with keeping the budget within the range outlined by the village board, and told Bradbury this year was "probably the toughest budget year you've ever had to do."

"We really appreciate ... how far you've stretched the taxes," Rosenberg said.

Public safety will consume the largest portion of the budget at 29 percent, according to the village's statistics. That figure includes police, the fire service and other costs associated with law enforcement and safety within the village. Employee benefits (20 percent) and the Department of Public Works (16 percent) round out the top three expenditures in the new budget. A handful of village employees, including Bradbury, police Chief Greg Austin, and police Lt. Eugene Matthews, earn more than $100,000 per year, but unlike the previous year, their anticipated salaries won't include raises. One exception is the fire department's eight career firefighters -- their combined pay will increase from $645,000 in this year's budget, to more than $680,000 in the coming fiscal year.

The village will spend eight percent of its budget on recreation and human services, while six percent will be reserved for the direct costs of the village's government.

On the revenue side, the village anticipates 85% of its income will come from property and sales tax, with property taxes making up the vast majority of overall revenues.

Rye Brook's fiscal year begins June 10. To view the 2010-2011 budget, including charts, graphs and line items for expenditures, download a PDF of the budget summary at Rye Brook's website.

* The non-homestead tax rate for the 2010-2011 fiscal year is $6.59, not $6.52 as an earlier version of this story reported. In addition, the lede of the story was updated to include an additional decimal for the tax rate increase.