By Kristine Snodgrass, Staff Writer
MONTGOMERY — The Township Committee Thursday night introduced a $26.7 million municipal budget with no tax increase for residents.
The municipal tax rate will remain 30 cents per $100 of assessed value with no increase over the 2008 rate. The average municipal tax will remain $1,530 on a home assessed at the township average of $509,500.
”The consensus on the Township Committee this year was to get to zero tax increase if we possibly could,” Mayor Louise Wilson said. “It’s important to understand that our revenues have fallen off substantially so this budget reflects deep cuts as well as a commitment to doing some things differently — that is, regionally.”
As it struggled in recent months to balance its budget, the committee moved forward with several shared-service programs, moving functions to the county the township now handles, including emergency dispatch and senior transportation.
The decisions were made in response to decreasing revenues this year, including state aid and development activity, while costs, such as pension payments, utilities, health insurance, road salt and water service, have increased significantly.
Cuts to the budget include a reduced workforce through layoffs and attrition — the township is down 20 positions since 2006 — and work hour reductions. In addition, the salaries of all nonunion employees, except teachers with the township’s childcare program, were frozen.
Department budgets also were cut for administration, tax assessment, construction code and capital improvements.
”I expect the trend will continue, and we will have more changes and tough choices to make in 2010 and beyond,” Mayor Wilson said.
Committeeman Mark Caliguire said that after seeing a draft budget last week, he asked to meet with township administration to see if anything more could be cut from the budget. The original budget called for an increase of about $50 for the average assessed home, he said.
”Basically, in this economy, I just couldn’t support any tax increase, no matter what size,” he said.
As a result, about $200,000 more was trimmed from the budget since last week, Township Administrator Donato Nieman said. The additional cuts came from capital, including upgrades to the municipal building, special projects and extra revenue from delinquent taxes and the sale of assets, he said.
Mr. Nieman said he’s satisfied with this budget.
”Given the financial circumstances that the State of New Jersey… I’m as pleased as I can be, but next year, we’re looking at a situation where the impact of the caps will be greater,” he said, referring to state mandated caps on municipal property taxes.
Municipal services were cut back under the budget, such as service at the township mini dump and distribution of the township newsletter.
”You can’t cut taxes without impacting services,” Mr. Nieman said.
In the budget, some items were selected to avoid cuts, including the township’s contribution to the library and EMS, and it will continue to invest in open space preservation. The township also chose not to take advantage of the pension deferral program, a recently enacted state program that allows municipalities to put off making half their payments to the public employee pension fund.
The municipal budget represents about 11 percent of the total property tax bill for residents, Mayor Wilson said. This includes police, road maintenance and repair, snow plowing, parks and recreation, senior programs and services, code enforcement, planning and zoning, capital projects, emergency management, municipal court and other services.
The remaining 89 percent of the bill consists of school taxes, at 69 percent; county taxes, at 17.5 percent; fire district taxes, at 1.3 percent; and the open space tax, also 1.3 percent.
The public hearing and adoption of the budget is scheduled for the 7:30 p.m. May 21 in the municipal building.

