By STEVEN VIERA
Staff Writer
RED BANK — The average homeowner will pay $35 more in taxes as part of the borough’s new municipal budget, which was unanimously passed by the Town Council on June 8.
The total budget of $22,339,806.60 carries a 1.68 percent tax increase from the previous year and includes a local tax levy of $12,128,332.32, which includes a municipal tax of $11,438,971 and a library tax of $689,361.32.
With a tax rate of .5836, a home assessed at the borough’s average value of $354,006 would pay $2,065.98 in taxes.
Additionally, Red Bank receives $2,011,681 in state aid, and the budget will also draw on $2,035,000 of surplus as revenue.
“I just think it shows that political parties can work together,” Councilwoman Kathy Horgan, a Democrat, said regarding the passage of the new budget. “And it’s for the betterment of the community.”
The June 8 vote was the Town Council’s second attempt to pass a municipal budget.
At a meeting on May 25, a previous version of the budget failed to pass when the Council’s three Republicans voted in favor while the two Democrats, joined by Independent Council President Cindy Burnham, voted against it. Mayor Pasquale Menna, a Democrat, cast the tiebreaking “no” vote.
Following that meeting, Council Democrats Horgan and Edward Zipprich released a proposal calling for $15,000 in expense reductions and cutting reserves by $70,000, which they described as “slush funds” that were “hiding” in the Republican-proposed budget. Republican Councilwoman and Finance Committee Chair Linda Schwabenbauer refuted the characterization of these reserves as slush funds, citing them as important to the financial health of the borough.
The Council eventually arrived at a deal to reduce reserves by $35,000 and apply those funds as surplus revenue. Those reductions would be offset by an agreement to provide parking out of the borough’s municipal lot to the Count Basie Theatre during the nights of performances, which is expected to bring in $35,000 in revenue. According to Schwabenbauer, this revision brought the budget down from an initial tax rate increase of 1.98 percent to its current increase of 1.68 percent.
Factors behind the budget increase include an approximately $230,000 increase in the Department of Works due to not reducing enough positions after outsourcing trash services and an approximately $460,000 increase in debt services. However, Schwabenbauer pointed out that the Council is pursuing opportunities that would lead to profits or savings for the borough in the long run, such as consolidating the Independent firehouse as well as potential shared service agreements with Tinton Falls, Middletown and Monmouth County.