By KAYLA J. MARSH
Staff Writer
MIDDLETOWN — A $70.3 million municipal budget that has been passed by the Township Committee calls for residents to pay less than $3 more per month.
The Township Committee unanimously passed the 2016 municipal budget on May 2 following a public hearing where no members of the public came forward with any comments, questions or concerns regarding the document.
“This budget is sort of a precursor to what’s going to be coming in the future,” said Mayor Gerard Scharfenberger.
“Some of the things that we’ve instituted, some of the shared-service agreements and certainly the health benefit reforms are really going to be paying dividends in the next coming years.
“For this budget to come in as lean as it has been, and also keep the tax rate flat, is a really good sign because things can only get better from here.”
The total operating budget of $70,327,440 is a 1.28 percent increase, or $890,124 increase, from last year’s total budget of $69,437,316.
The adopted budget includes a tax levy of $51,116,061 — up approximately $706,191 or 1.40 percent from the 2015 levy of $50,409,869.
The budget also includes a municipal tax rate of .491 cents per $100 of assessed value — the same rate as last year’s budget.
The owner of a home valued at the township average of $402,547 is expected to pay $1,976.23 in municipal taxes — $32 more for the year or $2.67 more per month.
Township Chief Financial Officer Colleen Lapp said the proposed municipal budget is well below the state-mandated levy cap and remains in full conformance with the state levy cap law.
“This [budget] is really a testament to the great administration here, all the department heads who really get it,” Scharfenberger said. “We really have a great team in Middletown, we’re very fortunate, and the result is a budget that is really a model for the whole state.”
According to Lapp, with every dollar residents pay towards the tax levy, 62 percent goes to the school board, 21 percent stays at the municipal level, 13 percent goes to the county, and then the municipal library, open space and county open space receive 1-2 percent each.
Items impacting the budget include approximately $1 million being appropriated in anticipation of a large-scale construction project— a new Town Hall and a loss of $129,000 in income due to Trinity Hall, an independent all-girls college preparatory high school that is vacating its temporary campus in June. The school has operated in the Leonardo section of the township since 2013 and is moving to the Fort Monmouth site in Tinton Falls.
“I think the administration and departments did a wonderful job putting this together,” Deputy Mayor Anthony Fiore said.
“I think it is a budget that takes into [consideration] the realities that we continue to strive for, which is being as efficient as possible with as little impact as possible to the taxpayers of Middletown, while providing exemplary services.
“I think it is a testament to this committee and to this administration’s will to continue to pass budgets well below where we can pass budgets.”