By Linda Seida, Staff Writer
STOCKTON — The Borough Council has given final approval to the 2011 budget.
That’s good news for the average homeowner because the property tax collected to support municipal government will decrease by about $17.
The budget of $622,422 will run the borough government and provide services to citizens with $13,000 less than in 2010 when the budget was $635,361.
The part of the budget that makes use of property taxes, the tax levy, will be $315,125. The budget comes in below the state-mandated 2-percent cap by $356.18. In 2010, the tax levy was $320,915.
The Borough Council on May 9 approved the spending plan unanimously with Councilman Nicolo Messina absent.
”Our team is proud of this budget and very pleased with our Finance Committee, our CFO and our administrator,” Mayor Stephen Giocondo said.
Michele Hovan, administrator/clerk, has given credit to the governing body for its members’ “dedicated effort” to “keep taxes as low as they can.”
The 2011 budget is “pretty much a mirror image of last year’s budget” with various adjustments, Ms. Hovan has explained.
”Our major expenses haven’t drastically changed,” she said.
The tax rate will be 33.4 cents per $100 of assessed valuation. The owner of a house assessed at the borough average of $373,504 will pay $1,254 in municipal property taxes.
Last year, when the average assessment was $375,964 and the tax rate was 33.8 cents per $100 of assessed valuation, the average homeowner paid almost $1,271.
One of the things that led to a lower budget was the borough’s paying down emergency appropriations that had been on the books for about four years, according to Ms. Hovan. Also, the debt payment for previous upgrades to the town’s sewer system is lower, she said.
The budget also includes improvements for Old Prallsville Road. The improvements will be paid for by a $157,000 state grant, and they will include drainage upgrades as well as paving, Ms. Hovan said.
Last year, the borough made similar upgrades to Woolverton Road.

