By Charles W. Kim, Managing Editor
Township Council members will begin to work on a proposed $48.3 million spending plan for 2013.
Financial Officer Joe Monzo outlined the proposed plan for the governing body Tuesday night.
If approved as is, the plan would carry a five-cent per $100 of assessed valuation increase that would translate to about $94 for the owner of a $188,000 average township home.
Mr. Monzo said this year’s proposed plan should not be as hard to work with as the budgets of the last few years because the local economy is slowly improving.
”This should not prove to be as difficult as the past few years,” Mr. Monzo said.
The township saw an increase in construction permit fees from a low of $933,000 in 2011 to $2.4 million last year, according to Mr. Monzo. The community also saw a decrease in tax appeals last year.
”This is a clear sign that the economy is making a comeback,” Mr. Monzo said in his presentation.
He also reported that the municipality saw an increase in revenue collections from the hotel tax, fines and other sources in 2012.
According to the presentation, the hotel tax brought in a six-year high total of $834,362, a cable tax brought in $449,755, almost double the prior year’s high of $276,228 in 2011, according to the presentation.
Court fines also rose from $574,479 in 2011 to $602,510 last year.
The town’s equalized valuation rate — the difference between how much a home is assessed for property tax purposes and the true market value — remained at around 47 percent, according to Mr. Monzo.
Earlier in the meeting, Mr. Monzo explained the re-evaluation process to the council.
That process would look to update the assessed vales of all the homes in the community and would cost around $2.5 million during a two-year period.
Mayor Frank Gambatese and Deputy Mayor Chris Killmurray echoed the sentiment of the other three members by dismissing the option for the time being.
Mr. Monzo said he only brought the process up after the community’s ratable base dropped during the last few years because of tax appeals.
He said he believes the trend may be heading the other way now decreasing the need for a full re-valuation of the township.
The council will now schedule several special budget meetings to be held prior to the regular council meetings at 6 p.m. Tuesday nights.
