The Village of North Hills approved its 2023-2024 budget of nearly $2.48 million, a 1.1% increase from the previous budget.

The budget of $2,480,115 is $29,150 more than the previous budget of $2,450,965.

The village’s balance of budget appropriations to be raised by real property taxes is increasing by 47.99%, jumping from the previously budgeted real property taxes of $6,757 to $10,000 for 2023-2024.

The villages’ board of trustees voted to approve exceeding the 2% tax cap at its meeting Wednesday, attributing the rise in taxes to the increase in expenses for the Roslyn Fire Department’s services.

A portion of the village is serviced by the Roslyn Fire Department for fire protection and emergency ambulance services through a contract between the village and the Roslyn fire companies, village clerk/treasurer Marianne Lobaccaro said. The contract is paid by the village’s general fund and residents of that portion of the village pay an extra village tax to cover that cost, she added.

Lobaccaro said the Roslyn Fire Department increased the contract cost by 15% this year.

“Under the state formula for calculating the tax cap, even that small increase in costs compels the village to exceed the 2% cap this year,” Lobaccaro said in an email to Blank Slate.

She said the village estimates that typical village taxes for property owners in the contract area will increase from $290 to $335 in 2023-2024. Typical village taxes for other property owners in North Hills will increase from $2.85 to $4.20, according to Lobaccaro.

While she said village taxes will be increasing, North Hills continues to maintain the lowest tax rate of any village in New York State. According to New York’s Office of Real Property Tax Services, North Hills had the lowest municipal tax rate per $1,000 future value in New York State at 0.02 in 2022.

The fire district levy is increasing by 17.38% from $52,933 to $62,135.

Village expenses for the fire district are also increasing by a total of $11,050. This is a 19.4% increase from the previous year’s expenses of $56,950 to the newly adopted budget’s $68,000.

Lobaccaro said during the meeting that exceeding the tax cap due to the expenses for Roslyn Fire services was out of their control.

All village expenses are staying the same or increasing, excluding records management and contractual central data processing which are decreasing in budgeted expenses.

Revenues increasing in 2023-2024 include utilities gross receipts by 8.1%, sales tax by 2.2%, building permits by 2.9%, fines and penalties by 25% and mortgage tax by 12%.

Expense increases in the budget include, but are not limited to, a 2.7% increase for personal expenses for the board of trustees, a 3% increase in village justice-personal, an 11.1% increase for the village auditor, a 3.9% increase for administrator-personal and a 4% increase for clerk-personal.

The largest expense for the village is its health insurance of $600,000, followed by its contingent account contractual expenses of $180,000.