HomeMy WebLinkAboutTB-11/05/2025 Budget Hearing 1
1 TOWN OF SOUTHOLD
COUNTY OF SUFFOLK : STATE OF NEW YORK
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TOWN BOARD
4 BUDGET HEARING
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7 Southold, New York
8 November 5 , 2025
4 . 00 P . M .
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14 B E F 0 R E :
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16 ALBERT KRUPSKI JR, SUPERVISOR
17 LOUISA P . EVANS , JUSTICE
18 JILL DOHERTY, COUNCILWOMAN
19 GREG DOROSKI , COUNCILMAN
20 BRIAN 0 . MEALY, COUNCILMAN
21 ANNE H . SMITH, COUNCILWOMAN
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NOVEMBER 5, 2025 BUDGET HEARING 2
1 INDEX TO TESTIMONY
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3 Page
4 Public Comments 3-11
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NOVEMBER 5, 2025 BUDGET HEARING 3
1 PUBLIC COMMENTS
2 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : So is
3 there anyone who would like to speak to
4 either the operating or capital budget
5 for 2026 ?
6 JUSTICE LOUISA EVANS : Paul , do
7 we have to do a Public Hearing, sort of
8 open it?
9 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : It
10 was noticed?
11 TOWN CLERK DENIS NONCARROW :
12 No, it was noticed . Yes . Yes .
13 TOWN ATTORNEY PAUL DECHANCE :
14 There ' s no -- there is no summary of
15 the budget . I will say that roll call
16 probably is in order, though .
17 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : Thank
18 you . Very good . Mr . Clerk, please
19 call the roll .
20 (Roll Call was called by Town
21 Clerk Denis Noncarrow at this time . )
22 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : Yes ,
23 go right head, sir .
24 DAVID LEVY : Hi . I am David Levy
25 from Laurel . I said before I left the
NOVEMBER 5, 2025 BUDGET HEARING 4
1 house that I would be the only one and
2 will be home soon . I won ' t keep you
3 too long . I ' ll be quick . First, I
4 would like to congratulate Councilman
5 Doroski on the results last night ,
6 Councilman Mealy, and the Town Clerk
7 Denis , Denis Noncarrow . I ' ve won and
8 lost elections . Winning is better . I
9 congratulate you folks .
10 COUNCILMAN GREG DOROSKI : Thank
11 you .
12 DAVID LEVY : And I wish you luck
13 as you move on .
14 COUNCILMAN GREG DOROSKI : Thank
15 you .
16 DAVID LEVY : Last year at this
17 time, I wrote a letter to the editor of
18 the Suffolk Times speaking about the
19 budget and not taking issue at the
20 budget, but pointing out that you were
21 able to mitigate what would have been a
22 colossal tax increase by applying fund
23 balance, but it was a lot of fund
24 balance . And it was not the first time
25 that the Town has done it . And I
NOVEMBER 5, 2025 BUDGET HEARING 5
1 mentioned that tonight because I spoke
2 in the letter about how -- because
3 people reading letters to the editor
4 really don ' t understand the mechanics
5 of putting together a budget . People
6 who sometimes put together budgets
7 don ' t understand the mechanics of
8 putting together a budget . They ' re
9 really complicated . But what you ' re
10 doing when you take money out of your
11 reserve funds , you do that because
12 you ' re spending more money than you ' re
13 taking in . And when I wrote that and
14 pointed out that this is the equivalent
15 of a family putting their normal
16 operating expenses on some kind of an
17 expense account, which they then pay
18 through their savings . I actually
19 heard from members of this Town Board
20 who said to me privately, I never
21 thought about it that way . And maybe
22 that ' s not such a great idea . But the
23 process was pretty far along . So I ' m
24 here tonight to say that we ' re doing
25 the same thing again . And it ' s
NOVEMBER 5, 2025 BUDGET HEARING 6
1 absolutely legal . And people always
2 come back at me . It ' s legal . It ' s
3 absolutely legal , but it ' s a bad idea .
4 I don ' t know what to say because a lot
5 of governments are in the situation
6 that Southold is in, but you can ' t keep
7 spending more than you ' re taking in .
8 If you didn ' t have that money available
9 today, your 2 . 94% proposed tax
10 increase , which I realize you ' re trying
11 to stay under the 2% cap, which we all
12 understand is neither 2% nor is it a
13 cap . And in fact, it has almost no
14 application in this Town because to get
15 a majority or a supermajority of a six
16 member Board, you only need four
17 members . Exceeding the cap really
18 doesn ' t change anything except that you
19 have to pass an additional item before
20 you can adopt the budget in that
21 condition . But I just want to make
22 sure that everybody understands that
23 you are, again, spending more than
24 you ' re taking in, and it ' s not a little
25 bit . It ' s $5 . 05 million is what you ' re
NOVEMBER 5, 2025 BUDGET HEARING
1 proposing . And I would point out that
2 in the last year, you used or budgeted
3 to use $5 . 095 million . And according
4 to the budget documents for this year,
5 you ' re going to overspend that by half
6 a million . And that ' s not me
7 surmising . That ' s in your paperwork .
8 You just have to know how to read it .
9 So I don ' t know what to say except to
10 bring that to your attention . One of
11 the council members was quoted as
12 saying, pointing to last year ' s tax
13 increase , which was significant, but
14 much less than was needed to balance
15 the budget , which is why you had to
16 draw more than $5 million in reserve
17 funds , that you were making up for the
18 previous year when there was no tax
19 increase . And that ' s only partially
20 correct, because the previous year ' s
21 tax increase was avoided because the
22 previous administration, I realize that
23 wasn ' t your budget , that the previous
24 administration had dipped into fund
25 balances . So we ' ve done that now in
NOVEMBER 5, 2025 BUDGET HEARING 8
1 ' 24 , ' 25 , and I haven ' t gone back to
2 ' 23 and ' 22 . I assume it was done then
3 too . Eventually, when you run out of
4 this money, and you will , you ' re going
5 to have no choice but to either
6 drastically cut services or come close
7 to doubling taxes . And I ' m certainly
8 not recommending that you do that .
9 That ' s my statement .
10 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : Thank
11 you . I appreciate that insight into
12 it . And, you know, this was done with
13 purpose . It wasn ' t done accidentally .
14 We are trying to minimize the amount of
15 taxes that we increase . And that money
16 is that -- the fund balance is the
17 taxpayers ' money also . That was
18 collected . And with inflation, it ' s
19 worth less and less every day . So we
20 know it ' s there for a reason . We ' re
21 trying to use it judiciously . And we
22 understand that at this pace, it ' s not
23 sustainable .
24 DAVID LEVY : By the way, why you
25 have all that money is another
NOVEMBER 5, 2025 BUDGET HEARING 9
1 question, which I haven ' t gone into .
2 If the State Controller ' s office had
3 ever done an audit for you to have fund
4 balances in those individual funds to
5 the extent you do, because that ' s a
6 sign that something is wrong or
7 somebody has been seriously overtaxing
8 the residents , not currently, but in
9 those past years . It ' s a whole other
10 issue . But it ' s there . Right now,
11 it ' s good it ' s there, but it won ' t be
12 there for long because you ' re going
13 through it at a very rapid flip .
14 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : We
15 understand that .
16 COUNCILWOMAN JILL DOHERTY : Yes ,
17 it ' s not healthy to have a high fund
18 balance . The auditors don ' t like to
19 see that , as you point out . And we are
20 cognizant not to go below a certain
21 amount . And that ' s how we try to
22 balance of not raising the taxes so
23 much . And, you know, I mean, these are
24 interest-bearing accounts , so we are
25 making money on this fund balance ,
NOVEMBER 5, 2025 BUDGET HEARING 10
1 which is , I understand, doesn ' t mean
2 that we ' ll , you know, not deplete it ,
3 but we ' re very cognizant of it . Our
4 Controller is always mindful to remind
5 us of all those things .
6 DAVID LEVY : Just wanted to ask
7 out of curiosity, which is not really
8 relevant to the budget, but does the
9 Town have a fund balance policy?
10 COUNCILWOMAN JILL DOHERTY : Yes ,
11 we do .
12 DAVID LEVY : Because the ratings
13 agencies love to see that .
14 COUNCILWOMAN JILL DOHERTY : We
15 developed the policy probably 10 years
16 ago .
17 DAVID LEVY : I appreciate that .
18 I thank you for the opportunity to
19 speak to you . And I ' m thankful for a
20 reason for convening at this time .
21 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : Thank
22 you for paying attention .
23 DAVID LEVY : Yeah . I appreciate
24 it .
25 COUNCILMAN GREG DOROSKI : Thank
NOVEMBER 5, 2025 BUDGET HEARING 11
1 you very much .
2 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : All
3 right . I don ' t see anyone on the Zoom .
4 Would you like to speak to address the
5 Board, sir?
6 (No Response ) .
7 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : All
8 right . Thank you .
9 JUSTICE LOUISA EVANS : All right .
10 Motion to adjourn until 7 : 00 .
11 COUNCILWOMAN JILL DOHERTY :
12 Second .
13 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : All
14 in favor?
15 COUNCILWOMAN JILL DOHERTY : Aye .
16 COUNCILMAN GREG DOROSKI : Aye .
17 COUNCILMAN BRIAN MEALY : Aye .
18 COUNCILWOMAN ANNE SMITH : Aye .
19 JUSTICE LOUISA EVANS : Aye .
20 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : Aye .
21 Thank you .
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23 (Whereupon, the meeting was
24 adjourned . )
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NOVEMBER 5, 2025 BUDGET HEARING 12
1 C E R T I F I C A T I O N
2
3 I , Jessica DiLallo , a Notary
4 Public for and within the State of New
5 York, do hereby certify :
6 THAT, the within transcript is a
7 true record of said Board Meeting .
8 I further certify that I am not
9 related either by blood or marriage to
10 any of the parties to this action; and
11 that I am in no way interested in the
12 outcome of this matter .
13 IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have
14 hereunto set my hand this day,
15 November 5 , 2025 .
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18 (Jed sic DiLallo)
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