Islip approves 18% pay raises for town clerk, receiver of taxes; foregoes update on MacArthur Airport plans

Islip approved raises of nearly $20,000 for the town clerk and tax receiver in a 3-2 town board vote Tuesday, a decision that triggered disagreement between elected officials over the fiscal sensibility of raising pay outside of the budget process amid ongoing tax hikes in town.

Receiver of Taxes Andy Wittman and Town Clerk Linda Vavricka will receive the pay hikes — an 18% raise for both. Their salaries are set to increase roughly $18,672, from just over $106,000 to about $125,000 annually.

Conservative Councilman John Lorenzo, who proposed the raises, and Republican council members DawnMarie Kuhn and Michael McElwee voted to approve the pay bumps.

Republican Supervisor Angie Carpenter and Democratic Councilman Jorge Guadrón voted against the measure.

A town spokesperson said Vavricka declined to comment Tuesday. A voicemail message for Wittman wasn't returned.

Lorenzo, in the lead-up to the vote, said the raises were necessary to bring the positions in line with those in neighboring towns.

"They are underpaid," he said Tuesday. "We need to keep good, young, hardworking men and women in this town working for us. Everyone else around them has been getting raises all along, and they have not."

Guadrón requested more time to review the proposed raises, while Carpenter agreed to include the raises in next year's budget but urged the council not to approve the pay bumps midyear.

“I will commit to increasing those salaries … I just feel it would be more prudent to include these raises in the budget going forward, that’s a few months away. It just is the right thing to do fiscally,” Carpenter said.

"When you adopt a budget, you approve the budget and that’s the budget you live by,” she added.

In an email to Newsday, Guadrón pointed to recent tax hikes in Islip. The town board voted to pierce its tax cap each of the past two years — the first time since 2017 — in order to cover cost overruns. Those votes drove a 27% uptick in the typical town tax bill over those two years.

Islip is expected to pierce the tax cap again in 2027, Newsday previously reported.

Guadrón also cited an ongoing “hiring freeze” in Islip Town, which he said is requiring departments “to operate with fewer resources, yet employees continue to work diligently to meet the needs of our residents despite these staffing challenges.”

“Approving salary increases under these circumstances conveys an inconsistent message to both town employees and taxpayers, and raises legitimate concerns regarding fiscal priorities and institutional fairness,” Guadrón wrote to Newsday.

At the meeting, the board did not take up the issue of expansion plans at Long Island MacArthur Airport. Newsday reported earlier this week that according to town officials, the town was focusing on a developer proposing to build a north terminal at the airport.

An Islip spokesperson said then that the town would not reveal the developer's name until the board votes on the plan. 

In spring of last year, town officials began the search for companies that would adhere to one of two options for the airport: either upgrade the current terminal or build a new one just north of the airport. 

Ongoing disagreements among board members over the options cast a cloud of uncertainty over the expansion. For example, Carpenter has touted a north terminal option, while Lorenzo remains opposed to it.

McElwee, another north terminal skeptic, said Tuesday he doesn't expect the board to vote on the developer until later this year. He said multiple steps have to take place beforehand, including meetings between the board and the company.

Town spokesperson Caroline Smith said "there is no calendar date for the board vote at this time."

By Sam Kmack

sam.kmack@newsday.com

Sam Kmack covers the Town of Islip for Newsday. He is a graduate of the University of Southern California and previously worked as a city watchdog reporter in the Phoenix metro area, as well as an investigative journalist at the Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting.