SOUTH BRUNSWICK: Council trims proposed budget

By Charles W. Kim, Managing Editor
The Township Council is working to trim the 2014 municipal budget, reducing a proposed 8-cent per $100 of assessed value increase to 1.8-cents so far.
   ”(The proposed budget) was a wish list,” Councilman Jo Hochman said during a budget meeting Tuesday night. “This (reduced plan) is a real budget.”
   Chief Financial Officer Joe Monzo and Township Manager Bernard Hvozdovic outlined the proposed $48.8 million budget for 2014 during a council meeting at the end of February.
   If the proposed plan were adopted, it would carry a 6-cent per $100 of assessed valuation increase, Mr. Monzo said. That would mean an increase of about $120 for the owner of a home assessed at $200,000.
   Mr. Monzo said at that meeting that a decrease in the overall assessed value of the township, loss of State Tax Court appeals, Superstorm Sandy expenses and funding money to pay accumulated leave for employees add up to a penny increase with spending remaining the same as last year.
   Mr. Monzo said the assessed value of the township dropped $2 million from $3.612 billion to $3.601 billion in 2013.
   Although the town added $33 million to the value of the community, it lost around $44.3 million in tax appeals and negotiated settlements, Mr. Monzo said.
   He said the proposed spending plan includes contractual, statutory and operationally necessary expenses like utilities, street lighting, fuel, water and sewer.
   The contractual expenses include employee salary and benefits, garbage collection, the annual audit, legal appointments, and other expenses.
   The statutory expenses include debt service, pension contribution, deferred charges for emergencies like Superstorm Sandy, tax court losses and payments for accumulated absences, a reserve for uncollected taxes, Social Security and other expenses mandated by the state or federal government.
   These three categories come to a total of $47.5 million, or 97.3 percent of the proposed budget, according to Mr. Monzo.
   Since that meeting, the council has held several special budget meetings and has lowered the tax increase to 1.8-cents per $100 of assessed valuation which would mean an increase of just less than $40 for the owner of a $200,000 home.
   Mr. Monzo said a public hearing on the budget is scheduled for May, but the council will likely not adopt a final version of the spending plan until June.
   Deputy Mayor Chris Killmurray said the council should itemize the cuts that have been made so that it can fully understand what the impact of those cuts could mean.