Chief financial officer says no indication of a negative trend developing.
By: Mark Moffa
WASHINGTON It looks as though the township will collect a lower percentage of taxes from 2001 than previous years.
Mayor Dave Fried said a higher tax default rate makes him nervous, but Chief Financial Officer Karen Baldino said officials have nothing to worry about yet.
Ms. Baldino said about 150 accounts are unpaid, amounting to about $280,000 of the township’s $24.5 million tax levy, or approximately 1.14 percent.
Ms. Baldino said collecting 98.86 percent of the taxes is something of which to be proud.
"I don’t get quite that nervous about (the uncollected taxes), she said. "I think anything above 95 percent is excellent."
Even though there is almost $120,000 more in uncollected taxes from 2001 than in 2000, Ms. Baldino said the only cause for concern would be if there was evidence of a trend.
"If there’s a trend developing, then certainly we need to get very concerned," she said.
Mayor Fried said he is "concerned."
The township collects taxes for the school and fire districts, and pays them 100 percent of what they are owed, no matter what percentage the township collects, he said.
The mayor said the township budgets for a collection rate of 98.5 percent, but that as the tax base grows it will need to make sure it has enough reserves to handle defaults.
He said the township already used $500,000 of its $650,000 reserve for 2001, leaving little money to compensate for defaults, if necessary.
He said higher defaults "could be problematic" as far as reserves are concerned.
The mayor said the Township Committee is going to do "everything possible" to ensure municipal taxes do not increase in 2002, especially since residents could be seeing a 10 to 15 percent overall tax increase through hikes in school, fire, and Mercer County taxes.
"(People are) worried about what we’re building in the future. We’re worrying about how we’re going to pay for things now," he said. "Our concern is whether the town has the means and whether people will be able to afford to live in the township."