Municipal taxes would increase for residents this year if Tinton Falls’s $24.9 million budget is adopted.
“There is an increase. The residential taxpayer with an average residential assessment of $322,000 will see their municipal taxes increase by $48 a year,” Finance Director Thomas Fallon said after the Borough Council introduced the spending plan during the March 3 meeting. The budget calls for a $14.1 million tax levy — an increase over last year’s $13.4 million levy. The overall budget would increase by approximately $700,000 over last year’s spending plan.
The owner of property assessed at the borough average paid $1,500 in municipal taxes last year and would pay $1,548 if the budget is adopted.
According to Fallon, the increase in the tax levy is directly related to increases in pension and health insurance costs, and debt service. “The levy is going up about $700,000, and those items together make up $550,000 of that,” he said.
Despite the increase in the tax levy, Fallon said the municipal tax rate would actually decrease by approximately 3 percent because the borough’s average property assessment has increased. For 2015, the borough is anticipating $318,000 in uniform construction code revenue after realizing $542,190 in 2014.
The borough is also anticipating $340,000 in revenue from the hotel occupancy tax, and $189,000 for the first year of a payment-in-lieu-of-taxes program for CommVault, the first tenant at Fort Monmouth.
The borough will also receive $1.5 million in municipal aid — the same amount it received in 2014.
Some of the appropriations in the 2015 budget include $2.4 million for debt service, $40,000 for improvements to the Tinton Falls Library, and $878,925 in utility and bulk purchases.
A public hearing on the budget is scheduled for the April 7 meeting.