HOLMDEL— At Town Hall last Thursday, the Holmdel Township Committee unanimously approved a $20,023,000 budget for fiscal year 2011.
The township’s surplus stands at $3.75 million, and about $3.5 million is expected in receipts from delinquent taxes. Nearly $14 million in operating expenses is appropriated, including $7.8 million in salaries and wages.
The budget approved at the committee meeting on June 23 includes an amendment that lowers the total taxes appropriated by nearly $135,000. Township chief financial officer Jeanette Larrison said the money was taken from the township surplus and allocated for snow removal during the Dec. 26 snow storm.
Committeeman Rocco Pascucci said the Federal Emergency Management Agency had approved the township’s application for disaster recovery, which would pay back approximately $124,000.
The budget anticipates funding $11,944,915 through local taxes, an increase of approximately $556,000 over the 2010 amount. According to an overview available at the meeting, the introduced tax rate of 31.5 cents per $100 of assessed value is a 1.5-cent increase over 2010.
The owner of a home assessed at the township average of $616,769 can expect to pay $1,863 in municipal taxes this year. This is a $55 increase from last year, and includes pension contributions ($27.50), open space debt service ($5.50) and all other appropriations ($22).
Township auditor Bill Antonides said that over 90 percent of the 2011 tax increase is due to increased pension contributions ($278,000) and open space debt service ($243,000). All other municipal expenses accounted for only a $35,000 increase.
“We don’t have enough in the open space fund to cover debt service that’s incurred. Therefore, it falls back on general taxation,” he said. “It’s no longer self-sufficient.”
The budget overview states that the tax increase remains under the state-mandated 2 percent levy cap, due to changing health care providers, utilizing a zero-based budgeting system, and layoffs, attrition and office consolidations.
Wilson said employees in the road department, clerk’s office and police department were part of the township’s layoff plan.
In March, the Township Committee said notices of possible layoffs were sent to 11 employees, including three police officers. However, Wilson said the layoffs did not include police.
“No [police] layoffs occurred, because of retirements and some contract concessions.”
“In January, I said that we were going to do everything possible to keep our taxes stable and not reduce services, and we have maintained that,” Mayor Patrick Impreveduto said. “We have lived up to that promise, and hopefully we’ll continue living up to it.”
Committeeman Eric Hinds, who serves on the township’s finance committee, said the township’s portion is only a small part of the $12 million it collects in taxes.
“We are a collection agency. We collect money for the county and the school board. The board gets 67 percent, the county gets 16 percent, we get 14 percent,” he said. “Decisions that we make regarding police and all the other pieces are made on 14 cents on the dollar.”
Committeeman Larry Fink said the township is working with very little surplus, which the budget appropriated at $3.75 million.
“The town is running a very bare-bones budget. When we had $4 million coming in fromthe Lucent property, we were able to operate the town with a much larger surplus balance. It allowed us to carry over funding into the following year and soften the impact on tax increases,” he said.
“We’re down to very little in surplus, and there’s nothing in the crystal ball that says anytime soon that surplus is going to rebound. And until we are successful with our negotiations with Lucent and the contract purchaser of the property, and that property is redeveloped and gets back on the tax roll, we’re going to be in that very tough situation.”
Antonides said the township paid back more than $600,000 in tax appeals over the last two years, which the committee suggested might affect the budget more than taxpayers realize.
“If the tax court rules in favor of the appeal, we cannot go to the school system or the county and ask them to pay back their share. We pay back the entire amount,” Deputy Mayor Serena DiMaso said. “Tax appeals are actually much more costly than people think they are.”
Holmdel resident Anthony Cooper applauded the committee for its work on the budget.
“My impression is that this Township Committee did a pretty good job on the 2011 budget. This year for the first time, you seem to be running this more like a business,” he said.
Fink is looking ahead to the 2012 budget, which he said may already start out at a $2.6 million loss because of deferred school taxes. Under state law, the township is allowed to use up to 50 percent of the school tax revenues to fund the municipal budget before paying it over to the school district.
“Next year, that accounting technique will not be available to us,” Fink said. “Just as we did belt-tightening this year with expenses, services, payroll and a few layoffs, we’re going to have to put our heads together to figure out what needs to be done next year.”
He said that any further cuts would have a significant impact on the services provided to Holmdel residents. He suggested that a public question should be put on the November ballot to gauge residents’ response to an increased tax rate or service cuts.
“If we think that we’re going to need to make some cuts next year to bring in a balanced budget, I’d like the voters to be able to say, ‘Yeah, I support the cuts, save me the tax money,’ or say, ‘No, I don’t want you to cut those services. They’re essential to my quality of life or my safety and I’m willing to pay a little extra for it,’ ” he said. “Give them a say, and us a sense of direction, as to what’s more important — cutting services or [raising] taxes.”
Impreveduto and DiMaso both agreed that a public question shouldn’t be posed until the committee has exact figures, but that a survey could provide the same opportunity.
“When you come down to the hard dollars and cents, we don’t know what those numbers are. Until we absolutely know that we have to take away services, I want to do everything we can until we go out there and ask if they want to do without a service,” DiMaso said.
Toni Brescia, president of the Holmdel Half-Century Club, said the township could be under-utilizing a number of assets that might soften the blow of cuts to municipal programs.
“We have ways of making money in the town, and I only see us making money on the sewers and the pool club,” she said, recommending the use of the closed tennis center as a summer day camp for children.
Holmdel resident Silvio Ferrara offered the board some skepticism.
“I hear talks of techniques to save money, but then there’s $2.6 million owed to the school board,” he said. “There are a lot of guys out of work and a lot of people are losing their homes. I’m a little concerned.”