PETER BOODY PHOTO | Town Supervisor Jim Dougherty speaking on town topics at Sunday’s annual meeting of the Shelter Island Association at Union Chapel.

Saying he wasn’t sure  the “working numbers” are correct, Supervisor Jim Dougherty said the new software town officials are using to work on the town budget for 2013 indicates the spending plan so far would require a 23-percent increase in the property tax rate — far in excess of the 2-percent annual cap imposed by the state.

Mr. Dougherty said the Town Board had made some cuts last week that had brought the number down from 27 percent.

He said he thought the numbers might be “junk” but “that’s what the computer spat out.”

Last Friday, when the Town Board voted 5-0 to schedule a hearing for November 9 at 5 p.m. on a proposed local law to allow it to pierce the 2-percent tax-hike cap, the supervisor commented that he was confident the final budget would come in with a tax hike under the limit. He said the proposed law was a procedural step the board had to take just in case the it winds up with no choice but to pierce the cap. By then, it would be too late to adopt the proposed local law in time before a final budget must be adopted by late November. Tax bills base on the spending plan are sent out in early December.

“I felt comfortable we were not conceding the event but exercising due caution,” he said Sunday of his decision to join with the rest of the board voting in favor of setting the hearing.

A preliminary budget proposal must be presented at a public hearing soon after Election Day and a final budget must be adopted by the board no later than November 20, under state law.

On his hourt-long talk on Sunday, the superviser also discussed the behind-the-scenes efforts the town had last spring to quell the crisis caused by the county’s call for an end to public bathing at Shell Beach, Menhaden Lane and Fresh Pond; reviewed the town’s many programs for senior citizens; described efforts to preserve Sylvester Manor, saying a closing was expected within weeks on the latest development-rights purchase in partnership with the county.

For more details, see the October 18 edition of the Reporter.