MIDDLETOWN — Township Administrator Anthony Mercantante is in his first year as township administrator and has an economy in turmoil to deal with as he enters his first budget process.
One common theme that Mercantante said has been heard throughout the meetings with department heads is that each department had to make adjustments due to the current economic climate.
“The issue that we are all somewhat aware of when a budget is presented is, of course, the economy,” Mercantante said. “It comes up more with our revenue- producing departments such as the courts and the building department.”
During Nov. 5-7, the Middletown Township budget team held public meetings with the township’s department heads as they begin the 2009 budget process.
The budget team consists of Mercantante, Assistant Administrator Edward Dunn, Chief Financial Officer Richard Wright and Management Information Systems (MIS) Director Todd Costello.
Mercantante said that from the information presented, the township expects the building department to generate less revenue than in previous years.
“Building permits are down this year because of the economy,” Mercantante said. “People are doing less work on their homes, so not as much revenue is coming into the township.”
He said that means the township would have to make adjustments to the budget to keep taxes down.
But in some cases, revenues are expected to remain the same.
The courts, Mercantante said, should remain a stable source of fees as people continue to have to appear in court.
“The court revenues should remain the same or have a slight increase or decrease,” Mercantante said. “We don’t anticipate any changes.”
One way that the township will save money is due to lower fuel prices.
“The drop in fuel prices has been a huge help,” Mercantante said. “This year prices were much higher than we originally anticipated, and the drop in prices will be a plus.”
He said that departments such as the tax assessor are not revenue-generating departments and are not affected as much.
In the end, Mercantante said it was apparent that each department head was trying to keep their budget as low as possible.
“What we take out of the meetings is that each department is aware of their economic limitations,” Mercantante said. “They were all very mindful of that.”
The goal for the township is to keep the budget increase, if any, at a minimum for the taxpayers.
“The goal is to make the budget as barebones as possible,” Mercantante said. “By keeping the budget at a bare minimum, we can continue to provide the type of programs that the township is known to provide.”
In the past, when he served as township planning director, Mercantante was on the other end of the conference table in Town Hall presenting his budget. This year he was the one listening.
“Basically we go line by line of the requests in multiple line items,” Mercantante said. “Some requests are straightforward, while some are more complex. We look at staffing needs, be it more or less staff, and what kind of help they are requesting.”
Beginning Nov. 5 at 10 a.m. with Costello’s MIS presentation, the team met every half-hour with another department head, including the library director, director of public assistance, department of public works director, fire officials, fire chief, and parks and recreation officials.
The following two days saw meetings with the director of planning, township clerk, township engineer and police chief.
Also, Wright himself had to present his budget needs as CFO.
Mercantante said the next step is for the budget team to look over the budget requests for total year-end expenses, which makes a budget easier to project.
They then go through the requests and meet with the Township Committee and present what they are trying to achieve in terms of a budget.
“We look in terms of having a zero percent increase, or 1 percent or 2 percent,” Mercantante said. “We also look into what various alternatives we would require.”
The 2008 $62.2 million budget, which saw an increase of 4.1 percent over the previous year, was introduced on April 7 and was formally passed by the Township Committee on June 30.
At this point, Mercantante said, the budget process still has a long way to go.
Contact Jamie Romm at jromm@gmnews.
com