By Vic Monaco, Managing Editor
HIGHTSTOWN – Gov. Jon Corzine has presented a new budget proposal to the state Legislature that, if approved, would mean the restoration of $49,381 of previously cut aid to the borough.
That amount is equal to about 2 cents on the municipal tax rate, and the borough plans to use that to lower its pending tax rate hike from 28 to about 26 cents, according to local officials.
In February, the governor introduced a budget that included a 50 percent cut in Consolidated Municipal Property Tax Relief aid to towns the size of Hightstown. That would have meant the borough’s CMPTR aid falling from $400,942 to $177,780.
In addition, the borough has been looking at another $62,000 in cuts in other state aid, and that doesn’t count an expected elimination of extraordinary aid from the state, which totaled $150,000 for 2007. Borough Administrator Candace Gallagher previously said that about 23 cents of the borough tax hike attached to its $5.9 million pending budget is attributable to state aid cuts and a state mandate to increase pension contributions.
Borough Mayor Bob Patten previously said the state is unfairly punishing small towns. And Council President Walter Sikorksi said the borough faces “financial extinction” if it doesn’t become the poster child for municipal consolidation.
The governor’s latest plan proposes that towns with populations of less than 10,000 get a 25 percent CMPTR restoration.
The Division of Local Government Services notified the borough this week that new figures can be anticipated as revenue in order to adopt local budgets. But it added that the new amounts are subject to changing, pending adoption of the state’s budget.
”I’m still hopeful of full restoration,” Ms. Gallagher said this week.
A 26-cent tax rate increase would raise the municipal tax rate to $1.70 per $100 of assessed property value. That would translate into a $312 increase for a homeowner assessed at the borough average of $120,000. So, the latest change would save the average taxpayer $24.
Borough taxpayers have already been hit with a 2008 school tax rate increase of 23 cents, or $276 for the average homeowner.
A small portion of the restoration will go to the school district, according to borough Chief Financial Officer George Lang.
