BY DAN NEWMAN
Staff Writer
Following a 14-cent increase that left many homeowners reeling in 2005, the Hazlet Township Committee has introduced a municipal budget that would increase the tax rate by another 17 cents this year.
The proposed budget of $16,666,775 is up a little more than $1 million from last year. Under the proposed budget, the owner of a house assessed at $300,000 would end up paying $3,135 annually in municipal taxes, for a total of $13,382 in property taxes when the school and county taxes are included, an increase of nearly $700 over last year.
The only way this can be avoided is if the state receives $750,000 in extraordinary state aid.
“We’ve called on local legislators to try and help us out, but there’s only so much they can do for us at this point,” Township Administrator Margaret Margiotta said.
The township will not know for a few more weeks if it will receive the aid.
Margiotta also pointed out that the state aid the township customarily receives has been frozen the past three years, making her job even more difficult.
“In the past we have used our surplus, and so it’s obvious we are in need of any aid we can get,” Margiotta said.
Although aid has been frozen, Margiotta said that no programs or staff will be cut.
Township Mayor Michael Sachs said that much of the increase this year has to do with a 20 percent loss of revenues.
“I don’t recall it ever being this bad before, as far as the total loss,” Sachs said.
Sachs also said that uncontrollable factors such as fuel and energy costs, along with contractual increases and health benefits, also contributed to the large increase.
“July is normally the time we would actually adopt the budget, and so between now and then, we’ll try to cut the budget down,” Sachs said. “We definitely don’t want to cut services to the people in town at all. Hopefully in the end, the increase will not be 17 cents.”
A public hearing on the budget will be held sometime in May, according to Sachs.