{"id":211765,"date":"2026-04-27T21:42:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T21:42:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/211765\/"},"modified":"2026-04-27T21:42:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T21:42:13","slug":"great-neck-library-board-adopts-2027-budget-with-3-62-tax-increase","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/211765\/","title":{"rendered":"Great Neck Library board adopts 2027 budget with 3.62% tax increase"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\"The\t\t\t<\/p>\n

The adopted 2026-2027 budget raises the library portion of the tax levy by 3.62%.<\/p>\n

Miao Li<\/p>\n

The Great Neck Library Board of Trustees unanimously approved its 2026\u201327 budget on Tuesday, April 21, advancing a plan that raises the library portion of the tax levy by 3.62%.<\/p>\n

The adopted budget totals about $11.5 million, an increase of roughly $473,000, or 4.29%, over the current year, according to budget documents . The increase is largely driven by rising personnel-related costs, particularly employee benefits and taxes, which are projected to climb 13.78%, or about $347,000.<\/p>\n

Library<\/a> officials said those increases stem primarily from higher retirement system contributions and health insurance premiums\u2014costs that are largely outside the library\u2019s control. Salaries, by comparison, are set to rise modestly by about $46,000, or 0.9%, the documents show .<\/p>\n

The spending plan does not include potential salary adjustments tied to the library\u2019s collective bargaining agreement, which expires Dec. 31, 2026. Budget materials state there is \u201cno realistic way to predict\u201d the outcome of upcoming negotiations, and therefore no funding has been set aside for possible increases .<\/p>\n

Read More: Great Neck school board race set with two\u00a0incumbents,\u00a0two\u00a0challengers<\/a><\/p>\n

In a written response to questions, Assistant Director Kat Baumgartner confirmed the board\u2019s vote was unanimous and emphasized that services would continue to reflect community demand.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur programs, collection, and service hours \u2014 including the recent expansion of Sunday hours \u2014 are a direct reflection of the community\u2019s needs and interests,\u201d Baumgartner said, adding that both direct feedback and usage data help guide spending decisions.<\/p>\n

The budget maintains funding for materials and programming at just over $1 million, a 4.17% increase, while administrative expenses are projected to decrease slightly.<\/p>\n

The proposal also relies on approximately $451,000 in appropriated fund balance\u2014an increase from the prior year\u2014to help close the gap between revenues and expenses .<\/p>\n

Library officials did not provide additional detail on how potential future labor costs would be managed if contract negotiations result in higher salaries.<\/p>\n

The tax levy increase remains within New York State\u2019s tax cap limits and does not override the cap, according to budget filings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The adopted 2026-2027 budget raises the library portion of the tax levy by 3.62%. Miao Li The Great…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":211766,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[9,24,63,122,124,123],"class_list":["post-211765","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211765","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=211765"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211765\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/211766"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=211765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=211765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=211765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}