SAYREVILLE — The Borough Council unanimously passed the 2011 budget at its June 16 meeting.
The budget includes a 3-cent increase per $100 of assessed valuation, totaling about $43 on a house assessed at the borough average of $143,700.
The last round of cuts, which reduced the budget from a 4-cent increase, included a $55,000 reduction in legal expenses; $4,000 from administration; $6,000 from the clerk’s office; $15,000 from the finance office; $4,000 from recreation; $4,000 from the Division on Aging; and $220,000 from a health benefits line item.
“Under the rules of putting together the budget, you have a line for the library and you also have a line for benefits,” borough Business Administrator Jeff Bertrand said at an earlier council meeting in an effort to explain the $220,000 cut. “In essence, the benefit costs of the library are double counted.”
There were also two increases that needed to be calculated into the budget — an $82,000 hike in police department expenses due to retirement payouts, and $36,000 for additional benefits for replacement employees in various departments, Bertrand said.
Since the council had to cut roughly $228,000 from the budget to reduce the tax rate by another penny, an additional $38,000 was taken from surplus and used for tax relief.
The council expressed mixed emotions over the budget.
Republican Councilman Frank Bella called the tax increase “reasonable” since it did not jeopardize services in town.
“I think a 5-cent increase was too excessive,” Bella said.
Democratic Councilman Bill Henry, who had pushed hard to lower the budget as much as possible, said he was quite happy with the increase coming in at only 3 cents.
“Considering where we started out at 7.7 cents and we got it down to 3 cents, that’s almost reducing the mayor’s budget by over a million dollars,” Henry said. “I’m pretty happy with the outcome of it.”
While voting in favor of the budget, some council members expressed concern over such a low tax increase.
“I think we’re a little low, but in order to make the necessary cuts to get down to 3 cents, there’s not much we can do with that,” Republican council President Ken Kelly had said at an earlier meeting when the 3-cent increase was first introduced.
At the same meeting, Republican Councilman Nick Perrette also spoke to the ramifications such an increase could have over time compared to a 4- or 5-cent increase, both of which had been discussed in depth in council and budget committee meetings.
“Just to let the public know what it really means, you’re talking about $14 for the year per household. So if you really think that’s saving you money … . When your services start to go little by little, it’ll cost you more in the end,” Perrette said.
The budget, it was pointed out in earlier meetings, is also lower than it was in 2010.
Contact Sam Slaughter at [email protected].