By John Tredrea, Special Writer
A Hopewell Borough budget for 2014 that will bring an annual municipal tax increase of about $74 for the average borough homeowner was adopted by a unanimous vote of the full Borough Council Monday night.
The $2,699,706 spending plan calls for a municipal tax rate increase of 2 7/10 cents per $100 of assessed property value.
Factors driving the need for the tax rate increase, borough administrator Michele Hovan said, are the borough losing $71,000 through tax appeals; $20,000 in delinquent taxes the borough is owed; and a $15,00 annual decline in court revenues.
There are no major additions or deletions of programs or services in the budget, Ms. Hovan said. Under the spending plan, the borough has 19 employees, the same as last year and the year before that.
At Monday night’s meeting, borough councilman Schuyler Morehouse noted that this year’s budget is $200,000 less than last year’s.
”But our tax rate has gone up, because revenue has gone down,” he said.
Also driving the need for the tax increase, officials said, are cost increases in health insurance and other areas.
”We’re looking into insurance alternatives,” Mayor Paul Inzano said. “I’m not happy about the need to increase taxes, but I’d be more concerned if we were cutting services as well as raising taxes.”
The mayor noted that municipal taxes account for 18 to 20 percent of property tax bills. School, county and fire district taxes account for the balance of those bills.
