2025 Shelter Island Town budget at 7.8% increase

The Town Board was in the process of making changes to its 2025 budget early Wednesday morning.
This was after explaining at Tuesday’s work session the 7.2% increase that had been projected would not hold that line because of a number of last minute changes reflected in health insurance premiums and retirements.
To offset some of the increase, the Supervisor Amber Brach-Williams said there were other spending cuts.
The tax increase for those whose properties are assessed at $1 million would be expected to add $205 to their property tax bills for 2025.
Health insurance premiums alone had increased by $155,000, representing a more than 1% increase in spending, Ms. Brach-Williams said Tuesday. Other increases had combined to move that 7.2% increase to 8.5%, and that had to be offset to some extent, the supervisor said.
Councilman Benjamin Dyett called the 7.8% increase “a hard pill to swallow,” while noting much of the increase from 7.2% projected earlier represents mandated costs.
One item scrapped for 2025 was a plan to purchase a high water rescue vehicle priced at $93,000. Half the cost had been projected to be paid by a $46,500 grant, but the Town’s 50% share meant a major savings could happen by delaying the purchase until 2026.
Town officials hope the $46,500 grant can be extended for use in 2026.
Other smaller cuts combined to bring spending down from an 8.5% increase, when new numbers were calculated for health care premiums and other expenses.
Elected officials who had been projected to receive 3.7% pay hikes will receive 3% raises. Ms. Brach-Williams will receive $103,700, up from $100,662 this year.
Other Town Board members will receive $46,400, up from $45,040 received this year. Deputy Supervisor Meg Larsen has been receiving an additional $6,427 this year for her added responsibilities, and that will go up to $6,700 in 2025.
There was a $20,000 expenditure to be allocated to exploring saltwater intrusion levels in some areas of the Island, but that has been deleted, while a $20,000 expenditure for water testing remains in the budget.
The Shelter Island Historical Society’s $15,000 allocation again became an issue this year, and there is no allocation listed in the draft budget. But not long ago, there was a request from the Town Board to receive a list of services the Historical Society renders to the Town, and the cost of each.
An inquiry has gone out from Ms. Brach-Williams to see if negotiations are underway and if so, where money would come to fund that line.
In recent years, Historical Society Executive Director Nanette Lawrenson has outlined the services the organization renders to the Town. Those services includes storage of maps, records and documents, but also ensures they are protected, maintained in climate-controlled facilities to keep them from deteriorating.
In a recent letter to the editor, Ms. Lawrenson said she has submitted an invoice to the Town Board for archival services rendered during the current year and a draft of a contract for future years to maintain documents and other records the Town has placed at the Historical Society since 2010.