Glen Cove Budget Update: City Could Operate at a Surplus by End of Fiscal Year

Glen Cove announced Wednesday that the City could generate an operating surplus at the end of the 2015 fiscal year, according to the mid-year budget evaluation.

Mayor Reggie Spinello revealed that the City is on track to deliver a balanced budget and said the evaluation showed strong year-to-date improvements and that his initiatives to find cost savings.

According to Spinello, this positive budget news is thanks to the following topline highlights from the 2015 mid-term budget review:

• The Voluntary Separation Incentive Plan offered to employees will save over $400,000 in annual payroll costs and benefits, this year alone.
• The aggressive settlement of lawsuits on behalf of the City has resulted in $1m in budget revenues for 2015 of which 75 percent has already been collected. Additionally, illegal housing and code violations have yielded $105,525 in fines through July, 2015. This is $20,000 more than was previously budgeted for the entire 2015 year.
• A mutual agreement was reached with Safavieh whereby they would not renew their PILOT (Payment in Lieu of Taxes). The PILOT, which began in 2005, provided cost savings to assist them in the first several years of operations. Beginning in January, 2015 the company is paying full taxes to the City of Glen Cove and the Glen Cove School District.
• Improved controls and procedures have saved the City $120,000 in police overtime.

Glen Cove’s 2015 budget was the first budget created by Mayor Spinello and his leadership team. To effectively manage the nearly $50 million budget, Spinello said the city “needs to leverage their business acumen and management experience to have a deep understanding of where we can save money, where there are long-standing challenges that need to be fixed, where we can find an upside through creating new revenue streams and where we can make things easier for our residents.”

The City’s comptroller has been meeting with banks and credit card processors since March to create more convenient ways for residents to pay for various program registrations and fees, Spinello said. Residents can expect to be able to pay their water bills online with a credit card by October.