Riverhead Town budget

Riverhead officials will hear public comment tonight on a proposed local law authorizing the town board to override the state-imposed property tax cap for fiscal year 2016.

Riverhead Town’s tax rate will increase 4.08 percent under the $54.3 million town spending plan Supervisor Sean Walter has proposed for fiscal year 2016....

Riverhead’s senior citizen and recreation departments will be combined into one in a move that will increase programming and save the town about $1 million over the next five years, if a plan put together by the two department heads is approved by the town board.

With EPCAL redevelopment still more vision than reality and cash reserves running out, Riverhead Town faces a budget gap it won't plug without major tax hikes, layoffs or both. For real. Tough decisions must be made during a heated local election season by a board that hasn't even adopted a budget for four of the past five fiscal years.

The 2-percent property tax levy cap will be extended through 2020, under an end-of-session deal announced this afternoon by Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie and Senate leader John Flanagan.

The assistance Supervisor Sean Walter has been hoping to get from a state financing authority to refinance Riverhead's staggering CPF bond debt is far from guaranteed.

Split board approves department consolidation, 7 employee promotions and/or raises; town planner's retirement, payout made official.

Longtime Riverhead planning director Rick Hanley has put in his retirement papers effective Jan. 3, according to Supervisor Sean Walter. He will 'bump' a less senior planner from her position for three days.

Suffolk County officials yesterday announced a three-year agreement that will increase sales tax revenues for town and village police agencies by $6 million. Riverhead will see an extra $178,900 in 2015 — money which has already been spent in the town's adopted budget.

Riverhead's 'Supervisor for a Day" presided over Wednesday's town board meeting, where the board: held a hearing on the 2015 budget, set a Dec. 2 hearing on the issue of private roads maintenance by the highway department, authorized a $350,000 grant application for WaterFire Riverhead and more.