For the owner of a property assessed at $279,000, the township average, the 5-cent tax rate increase to 41 cents would mean a municipal tax bill of $1,144 for 2005, up $140 from last year.
By John Tredrea
A proposed $16.7 million Hopewell Township budget for 2005 that would bring a 5-cent municipal tax rate increase if adopted is scheduled for a public hearing and adoption vote at Monday night’s Township Committee meeting.
If adopted, the budget would increase the township’s municipal tax rate to 41 cents per $100 of assessed property value.
For the owner of a property assessed at $279,000, the township average, the 5-cent tax rate increase to 41 cents would mean a municipal tax bill of $1,144 for 2005, up $140 from last year.
The proposed budget was intro- duced by a 3-0 Township Committee vote on April 18.
Several months ago, a draft spending plan called for a 9-cent tax-rate increase. The spending cuts enacted to limit the tax-rate increase to 5 cents included laying off three full-time employees: two Department of Public Works laborers and a maintenance coordinator.
In addition to the job cuts noted above, the committee also considered reducing, from full- to part-time, the hours of the township tax collector and health department secretary. At the April 18 meeting, the committee voted unanimously to keep those positions full-time after all. Also saved, several weeks earlier, was the job of a full-time Department of Public Works secretary, who originally was to be laid off.
Under this year’s township budget, Hopewell Borough is slated to pay $318,478, up $30,000 from last year, for police services from the township. The township police force has covered the borough for many years, since the borough dissolved its own police department in the early 1980s. Deputy Mayor Mark Iorio said township and borough officials would continue to study cost issues involved in interlocal services.

