Previously Published in The Messenger
By Matt Meduri
The Smithtown Senior Center played host to a packed-house public hearing for the 2026 budget on Tuesday night.
Contention swirls as the Town is pitching a budget that includes a 10.7% tax levy hike, exceeding the 2% New York State tax cap. Smithtown has never pierced the State’s tax cap. Last year, Smithtown was one of the ten Suffolk towns – the other being Huntington – to not pierce their cap.
The Town is leveraging their long-held ability to “do more with less”, citing a leaner workforce and more expansive services than other towns. The estimated tax burden is $160 per household, coming down to about an extra $3 a week. The Town is also citing frozen discretionary spending, streamlined operations, and the securing of millions in grants for infrastructure and revitalization projects.
For every property tax dollar collected, six cents go to the Town, four cents for the Highway Department, three cents for the fire departments, two cents to the libraries, ten cents to the Suffolk County Police Department, and two cents to the County. The bulk of the property tax dollar goes to the school districts, which account for 69 cents of every dollar.
The Town argues that the rate of inflation and a deluge of unfunded State mandates have forced their hand. This year, Smithtown’s tax levy was increased to 2.33% – far below the regional average of 9.88%. While a significantly larger tax levy is not necessarily an indemnification of a municipality’s fiscal practices, a tax levy is essentially a reflection of a town’s spending, cost of public services, and land value.
Unfunded mandates account for $7.5 million in increased operating expenses, courtesy of New York State, which consists of $1.7 million in retirement, $1.4 million in healthcare increases, a 17% hike in the minimum wage since 2020, a 5.8% State Aid for the Highway Department – stagnant from last year – and additional mandates, such as full-time salaries, waste disposal, and mortgage tax losses.
Inflation has also risen sharply to 12.9% since 2020.
The Town also posits that if Smithtown were to stay under the tax cap, they would only be able to raise $1.5 million in new revenue, resulting in the lay-offs of 46 full-time employees and 132 part-time employees. The Town is also adamant in using a reserves surplus to fund operating expenses, as it creates an unstable balance. Fiscal experts regularly advise against it, as dipping into reserves would likely foment a deficit next year and downgraded credit ratings, resulting in higher interest rates for bonded projects.
Residents made their voices heard at the Senior Center last night, as Town officials stayed post-meeting to further explain and showcase their findings. All members of the Town board were present.
“The tax cap was put in place by the Governor, the Assembly, and the Senate of New York State. My God, all three supported it; you just pierce it for the first time,” said Fred Gorman, President of the Nesconset-Sachem Civic Association,and a vocal critic of the current Town ensemble. “You could have used our money that you have in your pockets right now to take care of the problems.”
Gorman said that State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli (D-Great Neck Plaza) has made it “very clear” that he “doesn’t like people that have a lot of money in their reserve funds.” Research shows that DiNapoli has a nuanced opinion on dipping into reserves – greatly dependent on economic outlook, among other factors – and has prioritized shoring up rainy-day funds as New York lags behind other states in that regard.
“You have a fund balance of $45 million; that’s higher than what was expected. No bond rating is going to be affected by anyone that has $40 million in reserves with a budget the size of Smithtown’s,” said Gorman. “I’d like you to reconsider; you took a monumental step.”
Gorman, however, wished the Town “good luck” and said he “trusts the Town knows exactly” what they’re doing regarding the amounts within the budget. Irwin Eisen called the posited ramifications of staying within the tax cap a “dark narrative”, adding that people “cannot afford the cost” of a $170 yearly hike.
“People in this audience are losing their jobs; taxpayers are losing their jobs,” said Eisen. “The Town of Smithtown should not be immune to the economic realities of this world. Services will be impacted, yes. But what services can we reschedule or redo so that those services will not be adversely impacted? Clerical functions in this Town can easily be shared. You say inflation, I say innovation; you say inflation, I say consolidation; you say inflation, I say reorganization.”
Eisen posited that the Waterway Department, the Environmental Protection, and the Forestry Department could be consolidated, calling certain items in the spending plan “budgetary nonsense”, such as longevity line-items and intra-fund capital transfers.
Highway Superintendent Bob Murphy (R-St. James) represented his workforce. He said that a 2% property tax cap was enacted by the Governor, which has “created significant challenges to maintain the services and quality of life our residents are accustomed to.”
“Salt used to be $70 a ton, now it’s roughly $98 – about a 50% increase. Sand was $12 a ton, now $27 – only in the last seven years,” said Murphy. “Dumping fees and material removal costs went from $21 a ton to $47 – a 125% increase. Dump trucks are the backbone of our fleet. Six-wheel dumps went from $140,000 five years to $240,000 – a 70% increase. Ten-wheel dump trucks went from $215,000 to $375,000 each. The Highway Department has about twelve of them. Street sweepers went from $214,000 to $300,000 each – a 54% increase. We have twelve of them to take care of the 470 miles that we maintain. Super-sucker drainage cleaning trucks went from $460,000 to $800,000 – a 75% increase. Pickup trucks that our crew drives went from $30,000 to $55,000-$60,000 – and 83% increase.”
Murphy added that over the last thirteen years, his department has reduced the workforce through attrition from 140 employees to 120. “To meet the 2% cap and another 10% staff reduction means critical stone removal will be delayed. Brush and bag services will be severely impacted. Removal and disposal costs are astronomical,” said Murphy, adding his warning that once the Brookhaven Landfill closes, the fees will go over budget even further.
Janice Melrose-Brown, a self-described CPA who headed the Real Estate Review and Assessment Board for the City of Yonkers for two years, said her “maths are pretty good”, but grappled with the numbers the Town presented. She blamed the news media for not accurately describing the cents-on-the-dollar model of property taxation as it relates to this budget.
Catherine Kaya, Deputy Director of Public Safety, said that if the Town does not pierce the cap, Public Safety might be “forced to reduce or eliminate critical staff and services.”
“It is impossible to adequately fund our staffing levels, training requirements, and necessary equipment without an increase to our budget,” said Kaya, urging the Town Council to vote in favor of the resolution.
Doreen Perrino, Program Director at the Eugene Cannataro Senior Center, said budget cuts would be “detrimental to the seniors and services” provided by the facility.
“This year, we have served 11,102 grab-and-go meals. We delivered 13,396 meals to homebound seniors,” said Perrino. “Transportation has made 15,766 trips, which include transport to the center, doctor’s appointments, drugstores, and food shopping, among other things. Our residential repair program served 896 residents and we completed 1,093 jobs. Our expanded in-home services for the elderly services thirty-one clients weekly with three part-time aides – totalling 1,733 hours of service.”
Perrino added that outing trips are not only fully attended, but waitlisted as well.
“All of these services are provided by twenty full-time employees, including myself, and thirty part-time employees. It’s all-hands-on-deck,” said Perrino. “We run pretty lean. A 10% reduction would dramatically impact the programs and services.”
Joseph Arico, Director of Building and Grounds for the Parks Department, said that a budget cut would foment a closure of the Town’s water parks and picnic areas, the latter openable on weekends if staffing allows. Athletic fields would have “abbreviated schedules of league play” – with the leagues “growing immensely” that serves children as young as 5 to seniors into their 70’s – and tournament schedules would have to be “reviewed” in order to provide services to incoming leagues.
“Hoyt Farm would suffer. Educational service would have to be cut and we would not be able to man Hoyt Farm during the season, maybe only on weekends,” said Arico. “Callahan’s Beach or Shore Beach would have to be closed for the season; camping facilities would be canceled.”
Arico also said that park bathrooms would have delayed openings and would be difficult to service, while staff would also need to be cut.
Brandon Modrov, Superintendent of Recreation at the Town Recreation Department, said that his team plays a “vital role in shaping the future of Smithtown through safe and affordable programs that foster wellness, growth, and social connection.” He referenced the 2020 shutdowns during the Pandemic as an example of the “consequences of losing recreational programming.”
“Families called in desperation for their children to have a chance to once again connect, play, and belong. Our department gives children a safe place to make friends, learn teamwork, safely make mistakes, and find their passions,” said Modrov. “Beyond traditional education, summer camps, sports, and extracurricular activities are vital to the development of our youth. The unfortunate experience of 2020 was a powerful reminder of what happens when these non-essential services and opportunities disappear. When recreation is taken away, children lose more than activities. They lose connection, structure, confidence, and belonging. To reduce or cut these programs would risk repeating these same harms again.”
Modrov outlined amenities offered to Smithtown residents, such as summer camps, summer employment opportunities for high-school and college students, concert series, community events, adult athletic leagues, and adult socialization services. He argued that many of the school districts within Smithtown’s boundaries produce “countless student-athletes” who “excel at the high-school and collegiate levels”, many of whom “got their start” in Smithtown’s youth camps and sports leagues.
Mike Engelmann, Solid Waste Coordinator, said that “conservation laws require that we engineer and implement all aspects of waste disposal systems” for Smithtown’s near-37,000 households. This is done, according to Engelmann, with two weekly refuse collections and one curbside collection through “publicly-bid contracts that are consistent with our waste management plan and applicable laws.”
“Proper funding may not be available for deductions in these waste collections, as well as popular programs household hazardous waste collection events, paper shredding events, bulk item disposal, free mulch programs, curbside e -waste collection programs – all would need to be scaled back with bulk reductions in frequency of collections and new limits on volume, especially for yard waste,” said Engelmann.
Engelmann added that costs associated with waste disposal have increased “dramatically” over the years due to “contractual escalators and limited alternative disposal options for residues, such as ash.”
Engelmann read a statement from Mitch Crowley, the Traffic Safety Director, who was away in Texas celebrating his daughter’s wedding. Crowley said that a 10% reduction to their labor force would inhibit their ability to maintain their many assets, which includes 13,000 streetlights, 18,000 signs, 12,000 regulatory and warning signs, 100 traffic signals, and over eight miles of pavement markings.
“Smithtown is one of the only remaining towns on Long Island that still uses its own in -house labor force to maintain these critical assets,” said Crowley. “Our team performs all rebuilds, maintenance, troubleshooting, and repairs of our traffic signals, as well as the maintenance, troubleshooting, and repairs of all Suffolk County traffic signals in Smithtown. This approach saves Smithtown taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars annually.”
Crowley added that a typical traffic signal costs the Town “approximately $70,000 to $90,000 to rebuild” when completed in-house. The same project would cost $250,000 if bid out to a contractor, a common practice in other municipalities.
“All street lighting installations, repairs, troubleshooting of outages, as well as the installation of maintenance and replacement of all town regulatory warning and informational signs are performed by town employees. This is in contrast to other townships, which pay a substantial fee to outside contractors, often with long lead times to perform these tasks,” said Crowley. Alexandra Waseleski, Chair of the Smithtown Youth Advisory Board, said that her organization helps train the youth to be “future leaders, employees, and community members”, by providing “community service, mentorship, and programs to help build confidence, resilience, and essential life skills.”
“The Youth Bureau has made a huge difference in my life. It has taught me leadership and the importance of being involved in the beautiful town that is our home, a place where I and others feel supported and encouraged to do our best, not just in school, but in life,” said Waseleski If the Youth Bureau had less support, that would mean fewer programs and fewer chances for teens like me to grow, learn, and give back. Supporting the Youth Bureau means believing in us, the next generation.”
The Town Board is scheduled to make a final decision and vote on the 2026 budget at Town Hall on Thursday, November 13, 2025, at 2:00 p.m.