$45M package for
3-cent munic. tax hike
$45M package for ’04
described as ‘austere’
by outgoing mayor
By sue m. morgan
Staff Writer
OLD BRIDGE — Property taxes would increase by an average of $44 under a $45.3 million municipal budget introduced by Mayor Barbara Cannon Tuesday.
The budget for fiscal year 2004, which began July 1, would raise the municipal tax rate by 3 cents, bringing the rate to 76 cents per $100 of assessed valuation. As a result, municipal taxes on a home assessed at the current township average of $146,194 would increase from $1,067 to $1,111.
The proposed budget represents a total increase of $3,562,825 over the $41.7 million budget for fiscal year 2003, which was adopted by the Township Council in January.
An overall tax collection rate of 99.52 percent, the township’s highest collection rate in 15 years, allowed the administration to hold down any substantial tax increase, Cannon explained during the afternoon press conference.
"The credit really goes to the taxpayers," the mayor said.
Trimming individual departmental expenditure requests and not adding any new positions to the township payroll also enabled the administration to keep the tax levy down, she added.
"This budget is very austere," Cannon said. "We really have nothing much in it. Most of the [department] requests were cut substantially."
The 3-cent tax hike can be attributed mainly to increased appropriations to cover increasing health insurance costs, higher salaries and wages in the township’s police department due to overtime, union increases and step increases, employee termination costs, and police settlement payouts, according to Township Finance Director Himanshu Shah.
A total of $1.25 million to cover emergency appropriations for last winter’s snow removal and police overtime costs in fiscal year 2003 also necessitated the tax hike, Shah said.
For the coming year, $769,740 will be allotted for police salaries and wages; $416, 861 will be dedicated to group insurance coverage; $300,000 for employee termination costs; and $350,000 for settlement of litigation involving a retired police officer, Shah said.
In addition, the township has appropriated $171,807 as its contribution to the pension fund for retiring municipal employees, Shah noted.
This is the first year that the township will contribute to that fund, he added.
The mayor’s budget does not include any funds for the hiring of additional police officers, Cannon noted.
In fiscal year 2003, the township council paid out $720,000 in police overtime, Shah stated. The police administration has often stated that officers must work overtime to cover shifts left wanting for lack of manpower. However, with Lt. Thomas Collow due to be sworn in as the new police chief on Aug. 1, Cannon expressed faith that the department will be run more efficiently in the current fiscal year.
Out of $200,000 that was requested to purchase new police cruisers, the proposed budget allocates $55,000 to purchase "three or four cars," Cannon said.
The budget does not include funding for any other municipal vehicle, according to Shah.
The township’s animal shelter will continue to be manned by one animal control officer, Cannon said. In the past, the shelter was run by two animal control officers.
"Animal control is working well with one officer," Cannon said. "The police have exercised good administration there."
A vacant supervisory position in the township’s ice arena also will not be filled this fiscal year, Shah noted.
"We have no intention of filling it," Shah said.
The township will, however, pay the salaries of four police officers assigned to the school district’s "Cops in the Schools" programs, even though it will not be reimbursed the $166,666 it received from the school district in the previous three years, Cannon said. Voters defeated a ballot question in the April school election that would have permitted an expenditure to keep the "Cops in Schools" program going in the township’s secondary schools.
The proposed budget now goes to the Democrat-controlled Township Council, which is scheduled to publicly introduce the package at an Aug. 11 meeting.
Following the introduction, Shah will apply to the state Department of Community Affairs (DCA) for extraordinary aid to help offset the tax increase. That application must be received by the DCA by Aug. 18, Shah said.
Any extraordinary aid received will be applied to reduce the 3-cent tax levy, Shah said.
Cannon, who will leave office on Dec. 31 after 12 years as mayor, stressed that the 76-cent tax rate is the same as the amount that was presented to residents for fiscal year 1993.
The budget is also a means of showing bond rating agencies that the township is committed to being fiscally responsible, Cannon said.
The township’s surplus balance after usage in this year’s budget is $1.3 million, an increase of $190,415 over last year’s budget, she explained.
"As promised by the administration and council to the bond rating agencies, this budget begins to restore surplus balances to levels that will allow Old Bridge to maintain its present ratings," Cannon said in a prepared statement. "This should convince rating agencies as to Old Bridge’s commitment to fiscal responsibility."