BY KATHY BARATTA
Staff Writer
HOWELL — The Township Council is expected to adopt a $36.2 million budget for 2004 on June 15. The municipal tax rate will rise from 36.5 cents to 41.5 cents per $100 of assessed valuation.
That means the owner of a home assessed at $200,000 will pay $830 in municipal taxes in 2004, up $100 from 2003.
The 2004 budget was prepared with $6.6 million in surplus (savings) funds being used to offset needed revenue. The budget will raise $11.7 million in local taxes, $16.1 million in miscellaneous revenue and $1.7 million for the receipt of delinquent taxes.
Operating expenses are $10.7 million and $18 million is appropriated for salaries and wages. Deferred charges and other appropriations come to $718,661. The sum for capital improvements is $925,000 and debt service amounts to $1.5 million. The reserve for uncollected taxes comes to $4.3 million.
The amount of deferred school taxes being used is $2.3 million. A total of $750,000 is being taken from the miscellaneous revenue fund, specifically the township sewer authority, which has a current surplus of $1.9 million.
Mayor Timothy J. Konopka has objected to the use of the sewer surplus, stating that any surplus money in the sewer account belongs to the utility’s ratepayers and not to all the other residents who will benefit from the use of the surplus funds in the municipal budget.
The rest of the council defended using the sewer surplus.
Councilman Joseph DiBella said the sewer surplus is expected to regenerate itself within the next year since the rates and subscriber base will remain the same.
"In a tight economy we have a responsibility to use every resource," DiBella said, adding that if the council did not use the sewer surplus all property owners would see an 8-cent increase in the tax rate instead of a 5-cent increase.
Democratic Township Council candidate Barbara Dixel told the council it was wrong to use the sewer surplus.
"To me, that surplus belongs to the people who paid into the sewer fund. That money should stay there," Dixel said.
Deputy Mayor Cynthia Schomaker, whose incumbency is being challenged by Dixel in November, justified using the sewer surplus by noting that if there was a sewer emergency and the surplus was not there, emergency township funds that all taxpayers pay into would be used.
Konopka said that in his eight years as mayor the sewer surplus had never been used and he was concerned that doing so now was creating a new policy.
DiBella said that was no reason not to use the sewer surplus funds now.
Councilman Juan Malave added, "The fact that you’ve never done it before explains my tax rate while you were in office."