By Lea Kahn, Staff Writer
Township Council is expected to take action on a resolution that calls for a special referendum next month that seeks to increase the municipal property tax rate by 9 cents for 2012 when it meets Tuesday.
The 6:30 p.m. meeting will be held in the Council Meeting Room at the Municipal Building.
The 9-cent property tax rate increase would be in addition to the 5-cent property tax rate increase proposed by the $42.3 million 2012 municipal budget. The referendum question is needed to allow township officials to exceed the state-imposed 2-percent cap on the tax levy.
A 5-cent increase in the municipal property tax rate from 84 cents to 89 cents per $100 of assessed value means the owner of a house assessed at the township average of $160,282 would pay $1,431 in municipal property taxes, or $81 more than the 2011 tax bill.
The 9-cent cap increase means that property owner would pay $144 more in 2012, in addition to the $81 increase resulting from the 5-cent property tax rate hike. The total tax rate increase would be $225 on a house assessed at $160,282.
While overall spending in the 2012 municipal budget is proposed to increase by 1.14 percent from $41.8 million to $42.3 million the need for a referendum to increase the tax levy is unrelated to spending, according to township officials.
The issue is that in order to comply with the 2-percent cap on the increase to the property tax rate, it would be necessary to plug in $4.87 million in surplus funds into the budget a source of revenue. It would wipe out most of the available surplus fund of $5 million, leaving about $154,000 in surplus funds.
Municipal Manager Richard Krawczun said it would not be possible to “regenerate” that amount of money to be included as a source of revenue in the 2013 municipal budget. It might be possible to regenerate $2.6 million, but not the entire amount that is proposed to be used a revenue source for the 2012 budget.
The 9-cent property tax rate increase would generate $2.2 million.
Mr. Krawczun said the proposed 2012 budget does not include layoffs, noting that since 2007, the number of municipal employees had dropped from 213 to 197.

