The cause of the delay is an order from the state Department of Community Affairs
By: John Tredrea
An adoption vote on the $2.5 million Pennington Borough municipal budget will be delayed until June 3.
The cause of the delay is an order from the state Department of Community Affairs (DCA) that Borough Council appropriate $15,600 to cover a deficit in one of its accounts, borough auditor Robert Morrison told the council Monday night.
Mr. Morrison said the deficit dates to the mid-1990s. "In past years, fees were collected from developers to pay for municipal reviews of development proposals and other items," he said. "The borough spent more from that account than it collected. The deficit dates to a time period six or seven years ago. Since the 2002 budget is already at cap, the money will have to be appropriated without increasing the total amount of the budget."
The decision on how that will be done is expected to be made during the June 3 council meeting.
The state’s budget cap law restricts the percentage by which a municipal budget may exceed the budget of the preceding year.
If adopted as expected, the budget will bring a property tax increase of 2 cents per $100 of assessed property value, to 58 cents. This means the municipal portion of the property tax bill of a borough home assessed at $200,000 would rise from $1,120 last year to $1,160 this year.
When the budget was introduced April 1, borough Administrator Karen Waldron said the tax hike was due to increased insurance costs and a 20 percent increase in the cost of providing health benefits to borough employees.
Ms. Waldron added that several borough commissions, including Economic Development, Shade Tree and Recreation, were allocated less money in the budget than they requested. "But they’re all getting at least as much as they did last year," she said.