The Williston Times, Friday, April 14, 2017
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Mineola to spend more, tax the same BY N O A H M A N S K A R The Village of Mineola’s property tax levy will likely stay flat for a second straight year, but that’s not preventing new spending on needed upgrades, officials said last Wednesday. The village’s proposed $22.8 million budget for the 2017-18 fiscal year shows a 2.1 percent spending increase over the current year. But the $13.3 million in revenue from property taxes is not set to change. If the budget is approved, Mineola will have grown its tax levy by less than 0.5 percent over the past four years, Mayor Scott Strauss said. “We’re in a great financial position,” Strauss said at Wednesday’s village board meeting. A $285,000 increase in health insurance costs, driven by changes to federal health care regulations, accounts for most of the new spending, village Treasurer Giacomo Ciccone said. But the village is also adding $70,000 for road maintenance, spending a total of $720,000. The amount has steadily ramped up in recent years as workers try to fix as many roads as possible, Strauss said. Payments from the developers of Mineola’s four downtown apartment complexes help the village absorb those cost increases without raising taxes, Strauss said. Two of the buildings near the Long Island Rail Road station are open and occupied, and plans are moving forward for two others. They contain more than 1,000 apartments combined. “Hundreds of thousands of dollars” annually come from payments developers make under tax-break deals with the Nassau County Industrial Development Agency and separate “host community benefit agreements” with the village, Strauss said. “Mineola’s taken a strong hold and a
great turn, making great strides in revitalizing the downtown plan, which started a decade ago,” he said. The village is also expecting a total of $190,000 in additional revenue from county mortgage recording taxes, franchise fees from telecommunications companies and other fines and fees. The latter is due to a more “aggressive” approach to collecting fines for code violations, Scalero said. The apartment building deals have also made borrowing unnecessary, Strauss said, allowing the village to cut its total debt from $45 million in 2004 to $10.5 million today. Mineola could be debt free in six to seven years if no large, unexpected expenses arise, Strauss said. Skeptics of the village’s residential development initiatives have raised concerns that the buildings will burden traffic and infrastructure and that tax breaks for the developers will hurt Mineola’s finances. But “the negative impact that everybody was concerned about, and we had concerns about, didn’t materialize,” and the village and its businesses have benefited from new residents, Strauss said. The village board was to vote on the budget after a public hearing on Wednesday. Also last Wednesday, trustees unanimously approved a special use permit for Super FL Market, a supermarket that will take over a former King Kullen location at 52 E. Jericho Turnpike. The owner of Super FL Market, Weilin Zhang of Maspeth, Queens, plans to open his 12th store there following King Kullen’s closure in October 2014, he said last month. “Hopefully that store will open very quickly and we get a supermarket back in Mineola,” Strauss said. “Once they open, I hope you make them successful,” he added.
The Village of Williston Park Beautification Committee Invites you to Celebrate Earth Day “Little Make a Difference Day” Saturday, April 29, 2017 9:00 a.m. Meet in Village Hall Parking Lot (Rear of 494 Willis Avenue) We will provide T-shirts, garbage bags and gloves. Please bring your rakes and shovels. Groups will be assigned public areas within the Village and we only ask for an hour or two of your time to help clean up and beautify Williston Park for the Spring. All school groups, Girls Scouts, Brownies, Boy Scouts, Cub Scouts (Accompanied by chaperone) and all residents are invited to join us. Please email Village Hall (boardsecretary@villageofwillistonpark.org) for questions, information or to register your group. Thank you!
“Together We Will Continue To Make a Difference”
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2016 PHOTO BY NOAH MANSKAR
Mineola’s Village Hall is seen in 2016.
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