The key to Rocky Hill’s financial success: no debt.
By: Steve Rauscher
ROCKY HILL The Borough Council seems ready to unveil the 2002 municipal budget next week, and the news for residents promises to be good.
"It’s unquestionable that as long as we get the same amount of state aid this year, taxes won’t go up," Bob Morrison, the borough’s budget auditor, said.
Though Gov. James E. McGreevey has projected a state budget shortfall of nearly $3 billion and has promised to slash spending across the board, Mr. Morrison said representatives of the state Department of Community Affairs have indicated Rocky Hill can expect about $100,000 in income tax and energy receipts tax relief, similar to last year.
He did, however, stress that neither this year’s state aid nor the borough’s budget figures is official.
Even without state aid, however, Mr. Morrison said the borough is in an enviable financial position and would be able to keep last year’s tax rate of 53 cents per $100 of assessed value stable.
State aid accounts for a relatively small fraction of the borough’s budget appropriations which were about $943,000 in 2000, Mr. Morrison said.
"If this is going to be a tough year for state aid, Rocky Hill is better able to deal with it than a lot of other (towns)," he said.
The key to the borough’s financial success is simple, Mr. Morrison said. The borough has not issued any debt for more than 20 years, borrowing instead for the most part from its own accumulated budget surplus. At the close of 2000, the surplus was about $572,000, Mr. Morrison said.
In addition to keeping spending and debt down, the borough builds its budget on the assumption that it will collect only around 90 percent of its levied taxes for the year. In reality, though, the borough collects closer to 98 percent of its taxes, leaving it with a surplus.
Borough Council President Richard Batchelder said the borough met its budgetary goals this year.
"We’ve been in good financial position for the last few years, and we’ve been able to retire a lot of what debt we had," he said.
A portion of this year’s revenue will be diverted to the borough’s capital reserve fund, which is used for major expenditures such as construction projects and equipment purchases, Mr. Batchelder said. In the next few years, the borough hopes to acquire a new ambulance and fire truck.
"Those kinds of purchases are expensive for Rocky Hill," he said.