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News 12 Staff

1221lipandp2_2025-12-21-12-41-03

Welcome back. Living on Long Island only seems to be getting more expensive every year. I don't have to tell you, with most towns and villages having to steadily increase their taxes as well for various reasons. We just heard Supervisor Panicco talk about that. Freeport residents have been able to rest easy for over a decade when it comes to their village taxes, but will the village be able to follow suit again this upcoming year? Earlier this year, the village board passed its 12th straight budget, no tax increase, 0.1% tax levy. The $85.4 million dollar budget was also able to sustain vital services. The current budget is active until February 28, 2026. So joining us now is the Freeport Village Mayor Robert Kennedy. Good to see you, Mayor. Good morning. Thank you for having me here. All right, so let's talk about this. I mean, it's been quite a run, but we just talked to Supervisor Pannico for Brookhaven talking about all the different challenges when it comes to pension costs, when it comes to healthcare costs for employees. What's the state of play in the village? Well, first of all, the, there's, we have mandatory increases with the CSEA, the PBA, workman's comp, liability, disability, uh, medical, retirement, substantial increases. Um, what we've been fortunate to, to do is increase non-tax revenue over the past 10 years. I don't know how much more we're gonna be able to generate. I mean, we may be considering a slight tax increase in the future. We are currently working on a tentative budget that's flat. Uh, we're reviewing it. It has to be adopted by February 1st. So hopefully, we'll be able to. Uh, keep our residents happy and, uh, keep the, the taxes down. One way it seems you have been able to do that also is the use of grants, uh, to reinvest in the village. We know that the village has just, uh, acquired a new patrol boat now as well. Um, tell us about being able to just get creative and find different sources of revenue, different ways to keep the village running. You know, I'll tell you, it's, it's a, it's a combination. Between our elected officials, between the congresswoman, our, our county execs, senators, all involved, our department heads to make sure that when these applications are filled out for grants that they are completed and submitted. We have a grant writer that works with it. We're averaging about $3 million. a year we receive in grants. That's a significant number that and those grants are causing us again not to have to increase taxes. That's non-tax revenue revenues, $3 million a year. We just got a boat, um, that was from Senator Thomas, and our boat was 20-something years old, a police boat. Brand new boat, motor and trailer from Senator Thomas about a quarter of a million dollars. So this is something that the residents are gonna have to pay for. We did the same thing with fire trucks, fire apparatus. We're trying to secure all these grants as much as possible to save the taxpayers' money. It's very important to follow up and make sure when you submit these applications, you follow up and make sure that the applications are filled out correctly and satisfy the federal government and the state to get this money. We just received another agreement for 3.55 million to install pumping stations on the nautical mile to South Long Beach from Front Street all the way down to Richmond to prevent nuisance flooding. So that's another grant that the residents would have to pay 3.55 million to get these stations put in, but we got a grant for it. So, and the village is still working on dealing with some nuisance homes. Some have been left from the days of Superstorm Sandy. It's, it's incredible that we have probably another 20 homes that are up on cribbing. And residents call from the neighboring home saying, I'm afraid this house is gonna fall on top of my house. It's been up so long. The, the ground is soft, the house is lean. We're going in now. We give them a certain amount of time to correct it. If they don't correct it, we take it down, we send them a bill, they don't pay the bill, we sell the tax lien, and it's, it's been a very effective program, and we're really getting rid of some of these nuisance homes and even homes that just vacant that have been left by the banks, you know, there's, there's debris, there's animals, there's, uh. Uh, just a mess, gardening and such. We give them time to take care of it now. We passed the law in the village. We're allowed to do a nuisance buildings hearing. We give them opportunity to come in and time to resolve the issues. Many have resolved them on their own. If they don't, we take care of it, send them a bill, they don't pay the bill, we put it on the taxes, and if they don't pay the taxes, we sell the tax lien. The village, the village gets completely reimbursed for these services. It all ties in together because you, you think about the cost, you think about the taxes residents have to pay. Village tax is a small part of an overall tax bill, but at the same token, look at the, the home prices in Nassau County right now. It's hard for people to be able to live and work in Nassau County across the county, across the island, really. Freeport homes have gone up by 30 to 35% since Superstorm Sandy. Um, another issue that we're dealing with is the village of Freeport is now on the Industrial Development Agency in the town of Hempstead. So prior to this, when a business would move in, they would get a, let's just say a 50% tax reduction in the village, 50% schools, 50% town of Hempstead, Nassau County. Since we're on the board of the IDA now, what I'll do is I'll negotiate with the with the purchaser of this property or business coming in and saying the village wants a separate service agreement to be reimbursed for the total amount of taxes what it should be in the village of Freeport. We have our own electric, we have our own water, we have our own police, we have our own fire department. So therefore, we need to be reimbursed the full amount of taxes, which isn't that great compared to other villages, and it's been working well. Lastly, I want to talk to you about public safety. Um, you've been on the forefront of this body cameras. The village, uh, was the first to, to have those in place, but there are also community concerns about the feds, about ICE. We're seeing that across the island. We've seen that in Freeport. What's your message to residents who are. A Little bit leery some of them right now. Well, first of all, I just want to say our police department has raised its ranks from 72 to 107 police officers in the last 6 years. They've reduced crime by 56%. You can see the grants that we're getting for security cameras, the LPR program that we have. They've been very, very efficient in the village of Freeport, and I will not cut down or defund the police as far as ICE is concerned. We don't. ICE doesn't notify us, tell us they're coming into the village for any specific location or a case. The only time they'll notify us is of the health and safety issue when they are in the village, and we would have to respond to assist in health and safety reasons. But we are not participating with ICE in any way other than if they need help when they're in the village. Mayor Kennedy, always good to see you. Thanks for coming in the studio. Thank you. Honored to be here.

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1221lipandp3_2025-12-21-12-41-43

Welcome back. It's about to cost you more to take the train. The MTA will be increasing its LIRR fares in January, and even more hikes could be on the way. The board just approved another plan to increase fares again in March of 2027 by another 4%. The MTA defended the board's decision, saying fares are not going up two years in a row because the hike set for next month was originally scheduled for 2025. This is the 2025 fare adjustment that we're implementing right now and we're we're we're following our every two year approach. Alright, well, that's at least according to their record keeping because regardless, passengers we spoke to are fed up with the price increases. It's too much. I mean, we're getting killed. Maybe they should show some improvements if they're going to be charging people more money. The cost of a monthly ticket will go up by 4.5% and 8% for all other tickets. A new state law is going to protect property tax relief for first responders. It extends property tax benefits to the spouses of volunteer firefighters and ambulance workers killed in the line of duty. Previously, loved ones could only claim those benefits if their spouse was on the job for more than 5 years. The new law knocks that threshold down to 2 years. Governor Hochel recently signed the bill. It was put forth by Brentwood, State Senator Monica Martinez. President Trump addressed the nation, largely highlighting what he calls a strengthening economy. One major takeaway was the announcement of warrior dividends. Service members will be getting a check of more than $1700 raised by the recent tariffs. The president says those checks have already been sent out. The president also said he plans to announce a housing reform plan next year, but for now it's getting even more expensive to buy a home on Long Island. A new report from one key MLS says the median sale price for a single family home in Suffolk County hit a new record high in November, reaching $725,000. That is 11.1% higher than the previous year. The same report says the. Median jumped to $840,000 in Nassau last month, 8.4% higher again from the same time last year. That's all the time we have this week. We'll see you again right here next week for another edition of News Twelve's Power in Politics. I'm Rich Barrabe. Thanks for watching.

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Brookhaven Supervisor Dan Panico and Freeport Village Mayor Robert Kennedy join the show.

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