Township, school budgets adopted

Slight increase in tax rates

By John Tredrea, Special Writer
   A $20,963,660 budget for 2014 was adopted by a unanimous vote of the Hopewell Township Committee Monday night, township clerk Laurie Gompf said.
   The budget will bring a municipal tax rate increase of 2 4/10 cents per $100 of assessed property. The increase will bring the municipal rate to 34 2/10 cents.
   There are no significant changes in staffing or programs from last year under the proposed budget, Ms. Borges said.
   Increases in school tax rates
   A $78,814,766 budget for 2014-15 that will bring an 8-cent school tax rate increase in Pennington, a 4-cent increase in Hopewell Borough and a 3-cent increase in Hopewell Township was adopted by a unanimous vote of the Hopewell Valley Regional Board of Education Monday night, school district Business Administrator Robert Colavita said.
   The differing tax impacts in the district’s three constituent municipalities derive from use of a state-mandated formula, in effect for years, that takes into account the disparities between assessed property values and market property values.
   As school board President Lisa Wolff noted Monday night, in recent years Pennington has seen a smaller increase in its school tax rate than the other two towns in the district.
   An 8-cent tax rate hike in Pennington will bring that borough’s school tax rate to $1.49 of assessed property value. A 4-cent increase in Hopewell Borough will bring that town’s school tax rate to $1.40. A 3-cent increase in Hopewell Township will bring the rate there to $1.48.
   A key driver in tax rates going up in all three towns is a continuing decline in the total tax ratables in all of those municipalities, school officials say.
   The budget results in a tax levy increase of 1.9 percent over last year. In a CAP law, the state limits the increase to 2 percent.