The $38.2 million spending plan will be introduced at Township Council’s April 5 meeting.
By: Lea Kahn
The proposed 2007 municipal budget will carry a 2-cent increase in the municipal property tax rate not the originally proposed 3-cent increase when the $38.2 million spending plan is introduced at Township Council’s April 5 meeting.
Township Council agreed Tuesday night to apply $103,335 in additional state aid toward property tax relief. By consensus, the council also authorized Municipal Manager Richard Krawczun to pump additional money from the township’s surplus fund to reduce the tax rate by a full cent.
One penny on the municipal property tax rate is equal to $269,000 in revenue.
Township Council’s action means the municipal property tax rate will increase from 65 cents per $100 of assessed value to 67 cents. The owner of a house assessed at the township average of $164,400 would pay $33 more in municipal property taxes $1,101 in municipal property taxes for 2007, as compared to $1,068 last year.
With the additional $103,335, Lawrence Township will receive $5,505,217 in state aid this year, Mr. Krawczun said. This represents a 1.9 percent increase in state aid the first increase since 2005, when state aid was frozen at $5,401,882, he said.
When Mr. Krawczun asked the council whether it wants to take additional money from surplus, Mayor Gregory Puliti told the manager to go ahead and take enough to reduce the tax rate by 1 cent per $100 of assessed value.
Councilmen Rick Miller and Michael Powers also agreed to reduce the tax rate. Mr. Powers added that the council "would do a disservice to the taxpayers" by not returning the state aid to them, along with enough surplus funds to lower the tax rate.
The proposed 2007 municipal budget increased by $1.1 million over last year’s budget. Increases in the cost of salaries, pensions, trash collection, utilities and the reserve for uncollected taxes accounted for the budget increase, Mr. Krawczun said when he presented it to the council in January.
The reserve for uncollected taxes is required by the state, he said. The township collects property taxes for the Lawrence Township school district and Mercer County, as well as for itself. The reserve is used to cover the amount of money the township must turn over to the school district and the county, regardless of the tax collection rate. The actual tax collection rate in Lawrence is 98 percent.
Revenue to support the budget comes from four sources surplus funds, miscellaneous revenues, current property taxes and receipts from delinquent property taxes, Mr. Krawczun said.
The municipal manager said the budget includes $5.9 million in surplus funds as a source of revenue, which is the same amount of surplus funds used in last year’s budget. When the township closed its books Dec. 31, it had $9.4 million in surplus funds.
The township expects to generate $13.2 million in miscellaneous revenues, including fees for alcoholic beverage licenses, business licenses, fees and permits, Municipal Court fines and costs, recreation program fees and hotel and motel room taxes.
Municipal property taxes are expected to produce $18.3 million in revenue. Township officials anticipate collecting $768,000 in delinquent, or unpaid, property taxes from prior years.

