By dave goldberg
Staff Writer
NORTH BRUNSWICK — The township’s proposed budget is expected to be adopted at the next Township Council meeting Sept. 3.
"The proposal from the town is an increase of 1 cent for the period of Jan. 1 to June 30, with another increase of 1 cent in the next fiscal period," Chief Financial Officer Gerald Seneski said. "We are looking at a 2 cent increase."
Mayor David Spaulding said that the increase in the budget is mostly due to employee benefits and insurance costs.
"I think it is ambitious for us to come out with no increase," Spaulding said. "There are not a lot of cuts that can be made. It is a good goal and I would be very happy if we were able to have no tax increase. We have been very responsible over the last three years, but now we are faced with certain increases such as insurance and wages that we have no control over. The employees are entitled to these benefits. I am all in favor of having no increase, but we can only go so far."
Although the budget may be adopted in a few weeks, the full increase would not be approved of at that point, according to Seneski.
"The first increase would fall in the months between February and May, while the second increase would fall in the months between August and December [2003]," Seneski said. "This budget requires a resolution by council in May. Any action done needs to be approved of in May. The confusing issue is because the town is on a June 30 fiscal year, while the tax system operates on a calendar year. Whatever we do in the next fiscal year will be on the next calendar year. There are six months between the fiscal and calendar year. There will be two actions: adopting the budget and confirming the tax levy."
Last year, the town was expecting a tax increase, but there turned out to be a zero tax increase. Originally the preliminary budget was seven points higher than last year. Each point is worth $247,000, which would have been an additional $1,719,000 for taxpayers. This would have given the town a 5-cent tax increase. The town was able to cut line items and make appropriations to keep no increase for the local taxpayer.
Council President Francis "Mack" Womack last week said he believes a small increase now would be better than a large increase down the road.
"I would prefer to go with a very modest increase of 1 or 2 cents," Womack said. "In the past, there have been a lot of politicians who said there will be no tax increases, and it didn’t make sense, given the revenue. In the long run, if we simply try to go without an increase, the town could be slapped with a big increase in the long run. Rather than promising for the sake of promising, we will try to do the right thing. If we can have a budget without an increase, that would be wonderful, but I want to do the responsible thing."