By Geoffrey Wertime, Staff Writer
Local towns are in varying stages of the budget process this year, but with about a month to go until the state expects municipalities to introduce their budgets, they all are awaiting state aid figures.
“The main thing hanging out there, I suppose, is how much the governor is going to cut our state aid,” said North Hanover Mayor Jim Durr. “It’s been mentioned that it’s likely.”
While noting the positive fact the township’s tax collection rate is up over the previous year’s, Mayor Durr said the state aid figures loom large in the upcoming budget.
“Last year (state aid) was cut, and it had a pretty big impact on the local purpose budget,” he continued, “and that’s the thing mainly up in the air.”
Mayor Durr’s comments echoed those of officials throughout the area, who all agreed there is only so much they can do until the state tells them how much aid it will give municipalities this year as well as how much it will demand from them to help pay pension obligations.
New Hanover Clerk Jay Todd expressed some apprehension about the upcoming budget cycle.
“It’s going to be rough,” he said of the upcoming budget. “We anticipate it will be very difficult — like last year, if not worse.”
In Mansfield, Chief Financial Officer Joseph Monzo said the municipality has worked out revenues and appropriations for everything it can until it gets the state figures.
Without them, he said, “I really can’t make a presentation that has any kind of real validity to it.
“These are fairly significant numbers for us and many towns,” he said of the municipal aid and pension contribution requirements, which he called “two very big unknowns.”
The Township Committee will need to make some budgetary decisions, Mr. Monzo said, regarding how much to raise the local tax levy if it raises it at all.
A state law limits local municipal tax increases to 4 percent, but he said there are a number of exceptions that fall outside the scope of that constraint, including debt service, new construction costs and the loss of state aid.
“But in order to even get to that number, I believe we’ll have to use more of our surplus than I have a comfort level with,” he said, noting the law’s intent is to restrict municipal spending and governmental growth.
The township also is considering reducing trash collection from two days a week to one, Mr. Monzo added. He said Mansfield is examining the idea, and “the idea’s being kicked around more favorably than not favorably.”
Florence Township Administrator Richard Brook said he has worked on “multiple scenarios” to show the Township Council, but cannot produce any one definite budget without the state’s numbers.
“There’s too much uncertainty to introduce a budget yet,” he explained. “The state is in such a degree of flux. They’re not even giving us a clue on the revenue numbers that will be coming.”
He, too, said pension contributions would have a big impact on the township and faulted the state with what he characterized as a mishandling of the issue going back several governors.
“It’s not an easy pill for municipalities to swallow, the way the pension issue was mishandled,” he said.
Fieldsboro Mayor Ed “Buddy” Tyler said the borough, “like most other towns, is not in a position to just work without the state contributing.
“So those figures are extremely important to us,” he said. The borough’s current property revaluation, he said, “is going to muddy the waters a little bit.”
Mayor Tyler expressed some frustration with what he characterized as the state’s overspending.
“(Fieldsboro tries) to provide services as economically as possible,” he said. “We certainly don’t buy Cadillacs; we buy Chevrolets. I wish the state would do the same thing.”
Springfield treasurer Judith Schetler said township departments have met about the budget, but it has yet to go any further. Officials in Bordentown Township and Chesterfield said they are awaiting state figures to start their budget processes.

