Southampton Town Votes To Approve $94.7 Million 2017 Budget

SOUTHAMPTON, NY — The Southampton Town Board voted to approve a $94.7 million budget for 2017 this week.

According to Southampton Town Supervisor Jay Schneiderman, the budget reduces the property tax rate by 1.6 percent, "the largest tax rate reduction in more than a decade."

In addition, the budget, he said, focuses on public safety and quality of life issues, improving affordable housing opportunities and upgrading town infrastructure, including roads and park facilities.

According to Schneiderman, the budget is “structurally balanced and responsible as well as responsive to community needs."

“We are the only town on Long Island that has actually been able to reduce taxes this year," Town Comptroller Leonard Marchese, said, in a release from the supervisor's office.

The budget include the addition of one police officer and one public safety dispatcher and creates positions for a new director of public safety and director of housing and community development.

In addition, the budget consolidates code enforcement, animal control, the fire marshall and emergency preparedness departments into a newly created department of public safety.

Also newly created is an office of housing and community development, a division of the department of land management, to address the need for affordable housing, the supervisor said.

“We believe by stepping up our affordable housing program we can help people live closer to where they work," Schneiderman said.

The 2017 budget also affords $3.2 million in capital borrowing for road improvements, $1.4 million for park facility upgrades, and $1.3 million for major technology upgrades in townwide computer networks.

Schneiderman explained that although the budget calls for additional borrowing, the overall level of outstanding town debt is actually being reduced by more than $7 million; the budget maintains surpluses in every account, with a cumulative increase in surplus funds of more than $1 million dollars above current levels, he said.

To view the budget, click here.