Editor’s Notebook
By Charles W. Kim, Managing Editor
There may be a bit of confusion regarding the tax increase in the municipal budget.
We have reported that while the municipal tax rate remains flat at 72 cents per $100 of assessed valuation, residents will be paying 7.69 cents per $100, or about $150 more for the owner of a township average $190,000 home, when they see their tax bills this summer.
Officials cited the reason for the increase as removing the cost for the South Brunswick Public Library from the municipal budget to its own line on the tax bill.
It does work out that the more than $2 million in state mandated funding for the library covers the 7.69 cents, but does that mean the library is the reason taxpayers will pay more this year?
The answer, officials say, is no.
Okay, then why is there any increase at all if municipal spending was actually reduced by about $1 million as officials said?
This gets a bit complicated and you may have to follow closely, but in the end you will get a better idea about what is happening here.
A new state law now requires the township to move library spending to a separate line on the tax bill. That line includes more than $2 million that the town is required to give the library as a minimum, according to officials.
Meanwhile, the $46.8 million budget just passed by the Township Council May 24 keeps the tax levy flat.
The difference is that the library funding was included in the municipal spending plan last year, meaning that there is some $2.3 million more included in that budget this year.
Add to that the fact that the township lost 4.3 percent of its value, or an estimated $168 million this year, through successful tax appeals and was required by the state to set aside about $1 million more than last year in pension contributions and health benefits.
This amounts to a perfect storm of events leading to a tax increase even though spending remains flat for the municipality and even actually below last year’s level.
The same thing happened with the $134 million school budget this year, causing a 12.2 cents per $100 of assessed valuation increase in that tax rate.
Voters approved that plan April 27.
Maybe you can see why library Director Chris Carbone bristled with our May 26 report on the town’s budget and ensuing tax increase.
I don’t think township officials were trying to mislead anyone as they tried to explain why taxes are going up, nor were they trying to blame the increase on the library.
It just happened that breaking out the library line item worked out to be the amount that the rate is going up.
The problem is that perception is everything, and the recent explanations seemed to imply that the increase was somehow connected to breaking the library out of the municipal budget.
The truth, according to officials, is that the decrease in the town’s value and the increases in state mandated pension and health insurance contributions is directly causing us to pay more in local taxes this year.
Charles W. Kim is managing editor of the South Brunswick Post. Reach him at [email protected].