to seek solutions
Official suggests action committee be formed
to seek solutions
By SanDI Carpello
Staff Writer
Helmetta resident Randy Forstenhausler was shocked when he opened his property tax bill last month.
When he purchased his two-bedroom condominium in Lakeview Commons in November 2000, he was paying $3,300 in taxes. In less than two years, he said, his tax bill, driven primarily by local school taxes, went up almost 50 percent, with an increase of $1,700.
"I like where I live, and I don’t want to move out," said Forstenhausler, a railroad construction worker and five-year borough resident. "What I want to know is where all this money is going."
Nearly 50 borough residents, having just received their new property tax bills, gathered at Borough Hall July 24 to ask the Borough Council the same question.
The borough’s 32 percent tax rate increase, which was implemented in April, raised the school tax rate to $4.33 per $100 of assessed value — an increase of $1.05 from the prior year.
According to Board of Education President Barbara Raczynski, the $690,000 increase in expenses can be attributed to rising tuition costs per student, greater transportation costs, and an increased number of students in special education classes.
The district, which has no schools and sends all of its students to the Spotswood school district, will pay Spotswood to take 20 more students in September than were sent during the last school year.
Republican Councilman Tom Reid said at the meeting that it is his mission to find ways to reduce taxes in the town. He told residents that he believes there are more complex issues contributing to the borough’s dramatic tax increases.
According to Reid, residents are paying a 6-cent municipal tax that supplements a benefits program for part-time municipal employees.
"Municipal employees get benefits, and they only work 12 or 18 hours a week," he said.
Reid also alleged that there are several people who live outside the borough but are using Helmetta addresses and sending their kids to Spotswood schools at Helmetta’s expense.
Raczynski refuted Reid’s allegation, responding, "Put your money where your mouth is and tell me where these people are living."
Other residents aired their frustrations with the tax situation.
"I am tired of the council taking money out of my pocket," former Councilman Joe Sinagra said. "There is nothing in town to show for it. You will cause people to move out."
Volunteer firefighter Pete Karczewski told the council that the excessive tax rate will force him to move out of town. He said his taxes have gone from $6,800 to approximately $8,400, and that he and his wife, who are expecting a baby, are having difficulty dealing with it.
"I don’t think I could wait until next year to get reassessed," he said, referring to officials’ statements that the borough properties will be reassessed to ensure each property owner is being taxed according to a fair and recent assessment.
Although reassessing properties will cost the borough money to complete, it will ultimately be in the community’s best interest, council members say. According to Mayor Frank Hague, Helmetta has not been evaluated since the early 1980s.
"A lot of new development has been done since then, so there is a large assessment difference in the older homes and the ones built later," he said.
Hague and several council members offered some suggestions to mitigate the financial dilemma.
"The school issue will never go away," Hague said. "We need to think of solutions to make the (municipal) departments more cost-efficient."
According to Hague, the only way to maintain services at a lower cost is to share some services with neighboring towns.
"These are decisions that the mayor and council should not make," he said. "They should be put on the ballot as a referendum. If residents want a nice community like we have, and be able to afford it, they should be prepared to make the hard decisions."
Other possibilities for tax relief include renting municipal space to cellular companies to install antennas, which officials expect will generate revenue in the amount of approximately $62,000 annually for the borough.
Some residents and members of the council also proposed that it would be more profitable to turn the historic snuff factory into a light industrial zone rather than a residential apartment complex.
In an effort to receive more state aid, Councilman Ed Romano urged residents to organize a voluntary citizens committee that will seek ways of relieving the tax dilemma.
State legislators representing Helmetta took credit recently for securing $225,000 in extraordinary aid for the borough. The funding will offset an unanticipated school budget deficit and help to keep municipal taxes from increasing this year.
However, state officials were unsure whether any more state aid would be granted to Helmetta to relieve its unprecedented tax increases.
State Assemblyman Peter Barnes (D-18) said last week that he and the other district legislators were working hard to get additional funding from the governor, but that there are simply no more funds available.
"You can’t give what you don’t have," he said.
Barnes noted, however, that Gov. James E. McGreevey has agreed to help the borough as much as possible. The assemblyman said he was very sympathetic to the extraordinary tax increases Helmetta residents will face and will continue to seek ways of providing relief to its residents.