By Charles W. Kim, Managing Editor
Township Council members unanimously approved the $48 million municipal budget Tuesday night.
”That was not easy,” Mayor frank Gambatese said Tuesday night. “I’m glad it’s over with.”
The spending plan adopted Tuesday will not include an increase in the municipal tax rate compared to last year.
”We got where we wanted (to be),” Councilman Joe Camarota said during comments on the plan. “We cut the budget by $400,000 and that is significant.”
Chief Financial Officer Joe Monzo said that the initial budget would have included a tax rate increase of 7-10 cents per $100 of assessed valuation when it was first introduced earlier this year.
An increase in tax appeals, especially from businesses, and two major storms accounted for a 6-cent increase right off the bat, according to Mr. Monzo.
Officials said that the township lost around $100 million in assessed valuation due to the success of the tax appeals, which dropped assessments.
Through the winter, council has held several budget meetings with the heads of the various departments and was able to bring costs down without cutting services, Mr. Gambatese said.
”The budget process has become difficult for every town,” Mr. Gambatese said. “This economy requires really good (financial) discipline.”
Councilman John O’Sullivan said that the budget came out good in the end without increasing the tax rate, but also said planning the next budget should begin right away.
”We have, I believe, 390 tax appeals (pending) for this year,” Mr. O’Sullivan said.
Mr. Gambatese said that he has heard from officials in neighboring towns, that the number of appeals is still pretty high.
”Monroe has over 1,100 appeals,” Mr. Gambatese said.
No one from the public spoke during the public hearings on the budget during the last several weeks.
While the municipal budget will not have an increase in the tax rate this year, the Board of Education passed a $136 million budget earlier this year that does include a 4.9 cent per $100m of assessed valuation increase.
The increase means about $95 more in property taxes for a $190,000 home this year.
It was the first year that the board could approve the spending plans without a public vote.
The state passed legislation that allows school districts to move its elections to November and also to allow boards to approve budgets within the mandated two percent spending cap without a public vote.
According to the New Jersey School Boards Association, some 85 percent of the almost 600 districts in the state moved elections and eliminated the public vote on the budgets.
