TINTON FALLS – The Borough Council approved a temporary budget of $5.8 million at the council meeting last week.
Prior to the approval of the temporary budget, Finance Director Stephen Pfeffer reported a delay in the budget calendar.
“I have a directive from the state which has, at a minimum, pushed back the budget calendar by a month, possibly more,” Pfeffer said last week.
Pfeffer added that all bids would be affected by the delay.
“Normally the budget introduction date is Feb. 10 or 11,” Pfeffer said. “Today you will get a budget where the numbers of the budget have not been certified by any of the agencies that we get it from. So you would get a budget that is basically a lot of guesses and would have to be re-engineered when we got those numbers.”
Pfeffer added that the budget delay was not unusual.
“A lot of times what happens is this budget calendar gets pushed back every year,” Pfeffer continued. “Every year I’ve been here, the budget calendar has been pushed back by the state. I don’t think there has been a Feb. 10 statutory date 17 years running. We’re always under the gun at the end. By the time the state finalizes their dates and their numbers and gives them to us, we’re in a situation where we have to introduce [a budget] … otherwise we’ll have a cash flow problem.”
Council member Paul Ford expressed concerns about the budget numbers in light of the delay. “My main concern is that I want to have time to look at the numbers so we can discuss it … add some time and some dialogue at the council level.”
Pfeffer added that the borough had a “phenomenal month” in December.
“We brought in over a million dollars in revenue and ended up closing out our surplus only $28,000 less than the prior year,” Pfeffer said.
In regard to the borough’s goal to cut costs, council President Michael Skudera announced that resolutions can now be found in their entirety on the boroughWeb site.
“The process will become easier once theWeb site is redesigned,” Skudera said. “This will cut down on costs and on phone calls.”
This announcement coincides with a discussion by council member Brendan Tobin at the workshop meeting that followed the regular meeting last week.
In an e-mail to fellow council members, Tobin requested that they attempt to save tax money and paper by switching to electronic correspondence in the future.
“In the interest of saving money and becoming less paper-dependent through our newWeb site,” Tobin wrote, “I am asking that we send everything via e-mail and only put letters, legal correspondence and agendas in my mailbox from now on to save money.”
“I want to make sure that we have time to review the budget,” Ford said.