Patchogue Village trustees on Thursday, April 17, passed a $19.4 million budget for fiscal year 2025-2026 that will raise taxes by 1.9 percent, or $45 for the typical Patchogue homeowner.

The 1.9 percent increase in the tax levy—the portion of village’s revenue that comes from property tax—is within the limit set by state comptroller Thomas DiNapoli for 2025-2026.

It is also less than the 2.49 percent increase the Patchogue-Medford School District has proposed. (The Patchogue-Medford School District will hold a budget hearing on May 7 and a budget vote on May 20.)

“I think it’s a very fair budget, which we’ve kept under 2 percent,” mayor Paul Pontieri told the Long Island Advance. “We’ll be repaving some roads and taking care of some infrastructure. We’re fortunate that we’re in a very stable financial position.”

Patchogue, like governments and school districts across Long Island, has been hit with rising costs for employee pensions and health insurance, both factors over which it has no control.

The new budget for the fiscal year starting July 1 includes $2.7 million for employee health insurance (a 5.3 percent increase) and $767,500 for employee pension costs (a 33.4 percent increase).

Neither Pontieri nor the six village trustees will see a pay increase under the budget. Pontieri is paid $60,000 and the trustees are paid $17,500.

As it has done for the past several years, Patchogue will use $500,000 from its reserves toward the budget, which it calls “tax stabilization.’

While some costs, such as for health insurance and pensions, are rising, village officials expect to experience savings in other areas.

A five-year contract with Winters Bros., for example, will reduce the cost of solid waste collection by about 8 percent.

The village also expects to see lower energy costs as a result of work done by Johnson Controls.

When the multiyear project is complete, the village expects to save $400,000 a year.

That includes an estimated $250,000 a year in lower energy costs for the village’s wastewater treatment plant, thanks to a $5.2 million project to install solar energy carports at the Patchogue Long Island Rail Road station. The majority of the funding—$3 million—will come from a state grant. The other $2.2 million will come from $3.4 million in bonds the village issued in March.

The bond will also cover the $1.34 million cost to renovate one of the softball fields at the Waldbauer Field Complex on Rider Avenue. The field is expected to be ready in time for the softball season’s start later this month or in May, Pontieri said.

Ratings agency S&P Global Ratings assigned an “AA” rating to the bonds and also reaffirmed its “AA” rating on Patchogue’s existing general obligation bonds.

A “AA” rating is the second highest of the four ratings on S&P Global’s ratings scale, second only to “AAA.”

S&P Global defines a “AA” rating as meaning the municipality has a “very strong capacity to meet financial commitments.”

“The stable outlook reflects our expectation that Patchogue will maintain positive operations, supported by its expanding local economy and minimal future debt issuances,” S&P Global Ratings said in its report.