Milltown residents would pay an average of $43 more in municipal taxes based on the 2015 budget introduced by the Borough Council.
The $8.39 million budget would raise the municipal tax rate approximately 2.8 cents per $100 of assessed valuation. The hike translates to $43.10 for the owner of a home assessed at the borough average of $163,635.
Municipal taxes are one component of the property tax bill, and do not include school, county or library taxes.
This year’s municipal tax levy would be $4.89 million, which is down $182,821 from 2014, according to borough Chief Financial Officer Denise Biancamano. Councilman Ronald Dixon, who chairs the Finance, Planning and Administration Committee, said an earlier version of the municipal budget would have raised the tax rate by nearly 8 cents.
“That was unacceptable,” he said, noting that the finance committee — also consisting of Council President Neil Raciti and Councilman Jerry Guthlein —worked with Biancamano to bring the tax rate down.
“A lot of cuts and sacrifices were made. The current fund allows the hiring of one additional police officer while still maintaining municipal services,” Dixon said. Dixon attributed the initial tax rate increase to uncollected tax payments on a large borough property over the past three years.
“Our tax collection rate in 2011 was 100 percent,” he said. “Now it has dropped to 98.2 percent.”
An influx of funds for superstorm Sandy relief allowed the borough to offset the amount of uncollected taxes in the budget last year, Dixon said. Over three years, he said, uncollected tax revenue has amounted to $1 million.
Items that had been promised to borough departments this year have been put on hold to allow borough officials to bring the tax rate increase down to 2.8 cents.
Dixon said officials are looking into legal avenues to deal with the issue of uncollected taxes.
“Next year, we hope to resolve the problem,” he said. “We are required to have a reserve for uncollected taxes included in the budget.”
Dixon said borough officials came together on this budget and reached a consensus on doing what is best for the taxpayers.
“We spoke to each department head, and they listened, deciding on what they could really use,” he said.
A public hearing on the budget will be held at the next council meeting, scheduled for 7:30 p.m. May 11.