BY KATHY BARATTA
Staff Writer
Manalapan MANALAPAN – A 2007 municipal budget totaling $29.5 million is expected to be introduced at tonight’s meeting of the Township Committee. Only a scant handful of citizens showed up for a final discussion of the budget on May 2.
It was revealed at last week’s meeting that municipal officials had to close a $4.5 million deficit and cut down on the use of the municipality’s surplus account to help fund the budget.
Taxpayers can see the result in the local tax levy that is expected to be raised this year. In order to pay for the $29.5 million budget, Manalapan property owners will pay a tax levy of $15.2 million (approximately 52 percent of the total budget).
In 2006, with a budget that amounted to $28.8 million, Manalapan property owners paid a local tax levy of $11.9 million (approximately 42 percent of the total budget).
While the total budget is up $700,000 from a year ago, the tax levy has jumped by $3.3 million.
Mayor Andrew Lucas has said there will likely be two positions eliminated when the 2007 budget is introduced tonight (May 9). A restructuring of the recreation department may also be unveiled.
Lucas has termed the restructuring as “strictly a proposal to streamline our operation and it may include two job eliminations.”
The new municipal tax rate for 2007 will also be announced. The new tax rate will reflect the revaluation of all property in Manalapan that was completed within the past year.
According to the revaluation of all Manalapan property, the municipality’s worth increased from $2.5 billion in 2006 to $6.1 billion in 2007.
Lucas said it is estimated that as a result of the revaluation, the municipal tax rate will decrease from 47.4 cents to 24.6 cents per $100 of assessed valuation.
Based on last year’s assessments, the increase in the municipal tax rate would have been 12.9 cents per $100 of assessed valuation.
Speaking at the May 2 meeting, Lucas said he and Committeeman Richard Klauber worked to take a $4.5 million deficit that had developed between a lack of revenues and an increase in the appropriation side of the budget and turn it into “what we feel is a very fiscally responsible budget to put forward.”
Klauber, who with Lucas comprised the governing body’s finance committee, said dipping into the budget’s surplus (savings) account for the past five years has left Manalapan in a precarious position regarding its bond rating. He said officials can no longer continue that practice.
Klauber said continuing to “dip into the surplus” will have a negative affect on Manalapan’s bond rating. The bond rating determines the rate of interest a municipality pays when it bonds for a capital project. He said a municipality can save tens of thousands of dollars when it borrows money by maintaining a high bond rating.
Lucas said preparing the budget is a high-wire act, noting that officials try to keep any increases as low as possible while not cutting services where the effect will be detrimental.
“You have to balance providing the great services residents have come to expect” with the cost of providing those services, he said.
Lucas echoed Klauber’s remarks about the use of surplus, saying, “The surplus shortfall is why we have to look at this year’s tax hike.”
Resident Butch Budai, the president of the Manalapan Republican Club and one of three residents whose name has been submitted to fill an unexpired term on the committee, addressed the governing body regarding the proposed budget.
He suggested that officials consider cost-saving initiatives such as subcontracting out snow plowing and other municipal maintenance services currently being provided by Manalapan Department of Public Works employees. He noted that the DPW employees’ contract is coming up for negotiations.
Budai posited that such an initiative would save in more ways than one, not the least of which would be employee salaries and benefits as well as the cost of expensive equipment that only gets used a few times a year.
Referring to Lucas’ recent meetings with area mayors to discuss cost-saving measures as a laudable idea, as well as the township’s attempt to develop a shared services agreement with the Manalapan-Englishtown Regional School District, Budai said he also thought Manalapan officials should try to engage county officials in a plan to develop some shared service agreements.
Budai is also a member of Manalapan’s Recreation Advisory Board. He said that as a member of that panel he hoped the committee was not going to eliminate the position of recreation director from the 2007 budget.
He said he thought Recreation Director Gerald Collincini’s position was a much-needed one and that Manalapan would suffer from Collincini not continuing in the position.
“Jerry has provided us with a state-of-the-art facility that is second to none,” Budai said.
He said he travels a lot and hears accolades all the time about Manalapan’s recreation program. Budai said he believes the credit for those positive comments all goes to Collincini.
Following its introduction, the 2007 municipal budget is scheduled for a public hearing and adoption by the committee on June 13.
In each of the past two years the committee lowered the municipal tax rate. In 2006, the municipal tax rate was lowered from 47.40 to 47.37 cents per $100 of assessed valuation.
According to figures Lucas provided, in 2006 the average home in Manalapan was assessed at $178,500 and generated $846 in municipal taxes.
Following the revaluation, the average home in Manalapan is now assessed at $429,603 and will generate an estimated $1,056 in municipal taxes, representing an increase of $210 to the owner of a home that saw his home’s assessed value increase as noted.
Municipal taxes are one part of the overall property tax bill, which also includes Manalapan-Englishtown Regional School District taxes, Freehold Regional High School District taxes, Monmouth County taxes and several other assessments.

