Sound Shore

MAMARONECK — Residents will see their tax bill go up 6.1 percent next year under a $30.5 million budget unanimously approved by the Town Board Wednesday night.

In the unincorporated part of town, the owner of an average home assessed at $20,000 will pay $5,648 next year — an increase of $328, or 6.1 percent, over the current year. And in Larchmont and Mamaroneck villages, where residents pay town property taxes on top of village taxes, the owner of an average home will pay $453 — an increase of $106, or 30 percent.

The 2011 budget, officials said, was developed with an eye toward continuing to provide the same services residents have come to expect, while imposing only a modest tax increase during tough economic times.

That’s been especially difficult this year, after several years of disappointing revenues, declining property assessments and increases in employee benefit costs that the town has little control over, such as pensions, workers comp and health insurance, officials said.

To control what costs it can, the town kept spending flat in the new budget and reduced operating and personnel costs, including laying off two employees, an office worker and a maintenance worker.

“This is a budget that invariably causes some pain,” said Town Administrator Stephen Altieri. “It is a budget, however, that is very responsible.

“Where the town could control costs we reduced them, where we couldn’t control costs, they went up.”

The town’s 2011 spending plan is an increase of $491,080, or 1.6 percent, over the the current year’s nearly $30 million budget. If benefit costs had not risen so much, next year’s budget would have stayed more or less flat.

The town initially proposed a 2011 budget of nearly $30.7 million in October that would have increased expenses by $671,000, or 2.2 percent. Under that plan, residents of the unincorporated area would have paid $371, or 6.9 percent, more than this year, and village residents would have paid $112, or 32 percent, more.

But over the past two months, town officials shaved out nearly $180,000 from the budget by deferring capital projects, reducing energy expenses at town hall and trimming its “pencil-and-pen” budget for equipment and day-to-day expenses. On top of that, the town is eliminating seven jobs from its 135-member payroll — two through layoffs, two by eliminating unfilled vacancies and three by offering early-retirement incentives.

The town had until Dec. 20 to adopt the new budget.