Last week, the Village of Patchogue approved the budget for 2026-2027, totaling a $55 increase per average household per year.
“Our goal when developing the village budget was to provide the services necessary to make the lives of Patchogue Village residents comfortable, affordable, and safe,” said mayor Paul Pontieri. “I believe this year’s budget reflects that.”
The total budget cost is $16,877,736, a total of a 2.4 percent increase over last year’s $16,533,943 budget.
In an effort to keep the increase low, Pontieri said, they took out of reserves and added $500,000 to the budget.
General fund revenues stayed about the same with sewer fund expenses slightly increasing by almost 6 percent and sewer fund revenues also increasing by just over 7 percent.
According to deputy treasurer Joanne Ruggiero, the cause of the increase includes 6 percent higher health insurance, a 3percent increase in union contract salaries, and a 15 percent increase in retirement.
All executive salaries have remained the same and there was a $500,000 tax relief.
“As we have heard, [the union contract increase and health care and retirement costs] is a big factor for all NYS governments entities, schools, police and fire departments,” she said.
Village electric and utility costs were overall down due to the energy conservation project. Also, the sewer electricity decreased by 24 percent in anticipation of the solar panels at the railroad station coming online.
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