JAMESBURG: Borough taxes to increase

Jamesburg set to pay off debt

By Maria Prato-Gaines, Staff Writer
   JAMESBURG — Borough residents could see an increase in their municipal taxes this year, however Jamesburg for the first time in more than a decade can say it will be debt-free by the end of 2009.
   ”We’ve been struggling to do this, to get out of debt that goes back to the ‘90s,” said Denise Jawidzik, borough business administrator.
   The Borough Council introduced a $5.465 million budget March 25, a $90,000 increase from last year. The increase is partly due to the rising cost of sewer service from Monroe and the amount the borough will pay in pensions.
   If approved by the council, the borough tax rate could increase by 10.8 cents per $100 of assessed valuation. That means that residents with a home assessed at the borough average of $124,000 will see an increase of about $134 in municipal purpose taxes this year.
   According to Ms. Jawidzik, the budget includes a debt payment of $155,000, the last in a series of payments that has reduced the borough’s debt from $2.5 million in 1999.
   The spending plan also would call for $3.432 million to be raised by taxes, she said.
   This year, the borough expects to take in about $187,000 less in surplus, primarily because of reduced interest on investments, tax collection reductions and a deferment of school taxes, Ms. Jawidzik said.
   The borough will have a lower amount in unspent appropriations this year. Total revenue dropped from $1,023,912 in 2008 to $1,001,500 in 2009, she said.
   Some revenue losses can be linked to the interlocal agreement with Helmetta which that borough decided not to renegotiate. The agreement had Jamesburg providing Helmetta with emergency dispatching services for about $30,000 a year. The borough also is facing a reduction in the amount of funding it gets in Formula State Aid, Ms. Jawidzik said.
   In addition, Jamesburg will receive $520,307 in state aid this year, down $13,342 from the previous year.
   On the spending side, salary and wages saw a $50,000 increase this year to $2.229 million as a result of the borough shifting some of its sewer budget expenses to the municipal operating budget.
   ”Monroe Township billing for sewer has gone up significantly,” she said. “A lot of the salary charged to sewer was increased.”
   Last year the municipality budgeted $177,800 for salaries in the sewer budget while this year it only budgeted $99,400, pushing the remainder over to the municipal budget.
   Had the borough not made those adjustments, resident’s sewer bills would have seen a significant increase, she said.
   Capital expenditures also increased, from $40,000 in 2008 to $187,000 in 2009, according to the budget. These costs include capital equipment expenditures such as sewer machines and a police vehicle totaling around $65,000, $25,000 in emergency storm and sewer repair as well as $60,000 the borough had to spend on ground storage tank remediation, a requirement of the state Jersey Department of Environmental Protection.
   The borough also reduced the total number of borough employees from 60 to 59, she said.