Council OKs budget, 31.9-cent tax hike

State grants South River waiver for levy increase

BY KATHY CHANG Staff Writer

With a unanimous vote, the South River Borough Council adopted the 2008 budget last week, which increases municipal taxes by 19 percent for South River residents.

The adoption of the $14.7 million budget was delayed because borough officials were waiting to see if the state would grant their request for a waiver of the stateimposed 4 percent cap on tax levy increases. The waiver allows the borough to raise $466,084 in additional tax money.

“The meeting [with the state] lasted literally seven minutes,” said Mayor Raymond Eppinger at the Oct. 14 council meeting.

In the end, the state granted the borough’s request.

Eppinger had said that without the tax levy waiver, borough officials would have to shut down some municipal services.

Since the tax increase has already been built in to residents’ 2008 property tax bills, officials said people will not see a new increase in their taxes.

Borough residents with a home assessed at $100,000 are seeing a municipal tax increase of approximately $344 this year. The municipal tax rate has increased by 31.9 cents, from $1.626 to $1.945 per $100 of assessed valuation, since last year.

Municipal taxes are just one portion of a homeowner’s property tax bill, which also includes school, county and open space taxes.

With the state approving amendments to the municipal budget in August, officials were able to reduce what had been a 22 percent tax rate hike when the spending package was introduced in March, trimming it to 19 percent.

Borough Administrator Andrew Salerno said the borough was able to secure $200,000 in extraordinary aid from the state, receive $45,000 worth of grants, and put in the allocation of $75,000 into the budget to pay for the demolition of a condemned building at 6 Reid St. in late March. The building had blown down after a windstorm swept through in February.

The borough’s three major budgetary components — the water utility, electric utility and the current operating fund — have a total budget of roughly $30 million. The borough operates its own electric utility as park of a cooperative Public Power Association, which involves eight other towns including Lavallette, Milltown, and Seaside Heights. The borough also has an interlocal agreement in which it pays Old Bridge for building and code enforcement services.

Salerno had said that revenues did not meet anticipated levels this year, due in part to approximately $689,000 that previously came from surplus generation in the electric utility.

Eppinger, in his first year as mayor, had stressed that the tax rate is not going up because of spending on any new services or programs.

“Our greatest loss is in revenue … we had to replace too many one-shot deals that are not recurring revenue items,” the mayor said.

Borough officials said they are already working on next year’s budget.

Councilman James Hutchison was not present for the Oct. 14 budget vote.