CHESTERFIELD: Municipal tax rate should be stable

By Geoffrey Wertime, Staff Writer
    CHESTERFIELD — Residents can expect to see an unchanged municipal tax rate of 4.1 cents per $100 of assessed property value this year, officials said.
    The Township Committee on April 8 introduced the $4.4 million budget, of which $311,870 will be raised through taxation, according to Township Clerk Bonnie Haines. For the owner of a house valued at the township average, $452,036, that means a bill of slightly over $185, the same as last year.
    Ms. Haines said the budget was “routine” and saw no major changes from that of 2008. As in the last several years, she said, the township has utilized surplus funds to keep the tax rate stable. In 2009, Chesterfield plans to draw about $2.2 million from the surplus.
    The budget’s public hearing will be at the committee’s May 13 meeting, at 7:30 p.m. in the Municipal Building on Bordentown-Chesterfield Road.
    The municipal tax is only one portion of the tax bill. The township’s school district has reduced its proposed operating budget enough to drop the tax rate by 2 cents per $100 of assessed property value, but the debt service of a previously approved $37 million school, now under construction, will still raise the rate by 8 cents, up to 88.3 cents. For the owner of a home assessed at $452,036, that would lead to an estimated school tax bill of about $3,991, an increase of $361.63 over last year.
    Only the school district operating budget and associated 2-cent tax decrease will require voter approval at the school election Tuesday, April 21.