By Geoffrey Wertime, Staff Writer
BORDENTOWN CITY The city is proposing an increase of about 3.5 percent in the municipal tax rate this year.
Of $4.9 million in the budget this year, which is up about $150,816 from last year, $2,947,391 would be raised through taxation, an increase of about $98,612 over 2008.
That would lead to a tax rate of 73.2 cents per $100 of assessed home value, a 2.5-cent increase over last year.
For the owner of a home valued at the city average of $245,981, that would lead to an increase of $61 per year, for a municipal tax bill of about $1,801.
The City Commission voted unanimously to introduce the budget at its March 23 meeting, in front of about 40 residents. The public hearing is scheduled for 8 p.m. April 27 in City Hall, 324 Farnsworth Ave.
”It’s pretty tight because there’s not a whole lot of discretionary money,” Commissioner John Wehrman said Tuesday.
He said the city does plan to fully fund employee pensions in 2009, electing not to participate in the state deferral program signed into law by Gov. Jon Corzine on March 18.
The program lets municipalities choose to halve their payment into the Public Employees Retirement System and the Police and Firemen’s Retirement System for this year only, and then make up the deferred amount along with its regular pension payments over the next 15 years, with interest.
Deputy Mayor James Lynch said Tuesday he was “extremely happy” with the budget, particularly the city’s ability to make the full pension payment.
”We could’ve deferred that, but we thought it was a bad practice to do it, and we’d only have to pay it later,” he said.
