SPOTSWOOD — The Borough Council unanimously introduced a municipal budget last week that absorbs a $184,000 slash in state aid.
The 2010 proposed budget totals $9.6 million, an increase of $199,000 from last year due to rising fixed costs. Council President Curt Stollen said the budget just barely maintains operations.
“We really trimmed every possible line item in the budget to its bare bones, [and] we were able to come up with one of the smallest tax increases in some time, [even] considering this loss in aid,” he said.
The tax hike stands at $89.46, or $7.45 a month, for a home assessed at the borough average of $254,000. It is Spotswood’s lowest increase in the municipal portion of the property tax bill since 2004.
Approximately $6 million of the budget is to be raised through taxation.
“The taxpayers don’t deserve any increases,” Stollen said. “[But] we’re trying to maintain the services we have.”
The Recreation and Office on Aging departments are some of the only areas beyond public safety and emergency services that are funded in the budget, Stollen said.
“What we’re trying to do is not decrease those areas, we’re just holding things [level] at that point,” he said.
Increases include $60,000 for police salaries and wages, $44,000 for pension contributions, $80,000 in bond notes payments, and $143,000 in health insurance, according to borough Business Administrator Ronald Fasanello.
Members of the local Policemen’s Benevolent Association are getting a 4 percent salary increase this year under contract, according to Stollen. However, borough officials are asking the PBA to poll members to see if they would be willing to take a salary freeze.
The borough plans to save money by not filling a vacant position in the borough clerk’s office. It has also asked the library to return what’s left of its surplus, has frozen department heads’ salaries, and will defer any new borough projects unless they are funded through grants, according to Stollen.
Since the town is already understaffed, there will be no layoffs and no downsizing beyond the position being eliminated through attrition, Stollen said.
“We are shorthanded already; many employees wear multiple hats,” he said. “There are positions that have been vacant for some time and have not been filled.”
Cutting back the police department, he said, is not desirable and would only increase overtime costs.
Stollen said he feels as though small sub- urban communities such as Spotswood have been fleeced.
“We feel like we are subsidizing the cities, and the money just leaves our community and doesn’t come back,” Stollen said. “I support the governor in that we have to stop digging the hole. I only ask that he spread what is left in an equitable fashion.”
The governor’s office has for years promised to reward municipalities for frugal budgeting, according to Stollen. Spotswood, he said, has always been ahead of the curve in that aspect, particularly by cutting overhead costs and having its PBA and municipal employees contribute to their health care. But the town has yet to see any kind of relief.
A public hearing on the budget will be held at the municipal building at 7:30 p.m. May 17.
“The town is in a tough spot, and we’re just trying to keep it viable and maintain the quality of life that we have,” Stollen said.