The Huntington Bay Board of Trustees approved its $2.3 million budget this week but not before several residents challenged some of the numbers.
The budget represents a 1.9 percent tax increase.
The main objections from the packed crowd involved the decline in reserves, and litigation costs, plus questions about how final numbers were derived.
In March, Morrow told both Newsday and HuntingtonNow.com that the village had ended up on the state comptroller’s “susceptible to fiscal stress” list because its fund balance had fallen as a result of money spent on a road project that hadn’t yet been reimbursed, and the hiring of an extra police officer.
He said Monday night that he had neglected to mention litigation costs, some of which involved legal action against the Town of Huntington over mooring fees and dock issues. The village has also moved against some residents over docks.
Morrow noted that 8 of 11 previous village budgets had included no tax increases for residents, while pointing to some local school budgets that had raised taxes despite a large infusion of state aid.
The village budget, which had been scheduled for a vote in April, was delayed until this week Morrow said, because the village needed to know more about the contents of the state budget, which was passd on May 2.