Tax rate would
rise 1.9 cents
HOWELL – The Township Council has introduced a $32.4 million 2003 municipal budget that calls for a tax rate increase of less than 2 cents for each $100 of assessed valuation.
Approximately $10 million is to be collected through taxation, township finance officer Jeffrey Filiatreault said.
The budget, if adopted following a public hearing scheduled for May 19, would raise taxes 1.9 cents for each $100 of assessed valuation, bringing the municipal tax rate to 36.4 cents. That means the owner of a home assessed at $200,000 would pay $728 in municipal taxes in 2003, an increase of $38 from 2002.
In figuring the budget, Filiatreault said he used a 95.7 percent rate for collecting taxes. He said the township’s current and actual rate for collecting taxes is 97.2 percent.
One of the difficulties of figuring the new budget was providing the $607,000 needed to cover the 27 percent increase in the cost of employee health coverage, Filiatreault said.
Before the council voted to approve the budget on first reading April 21, Filiatreault said the spending plan provides for the hiring of four new police officers as well as a lease-purchase agreement through Monmouth County of 12 new police vehicles. However, according to Filiatreault, four vacant municipal positions, both clerical and labor, will remain unfilled. According to Filiatreault, the positions being left vacant are two clerk-typists, an accounting clerk in the tax office and a laborer in the Buildings and Grounds Department.
Filiatreault said the positions have not gone unfilled too long, but said he did not anticipate a negative impact on the affected departments.