FREEHOLD TOWNSHIP – Members of the Township Committee will determine how much money will be collected through taxes this year by the Fire District 1 Board of Fire Commissioners after the board’s proposed budget failed to receive approval from voters.
Committee members will meet on March 13 at the municipal building to discuss the fire district’s budget.
Fire District 1 is west of Route 9. Firefighting services are provided by the Freehold Township Independent Fire Company No. 1.
The fire commissioners proposed a 2018 budget that totaled $1.3 million and called for the entire amount to be collected in taxes from the fire district’s residential and commercial property owners. On Feb. 17, voters defeated the budget, 127 to 109.
Following a review of the budget, Township Committee members may approve the $1.3 million tax levy that was proposed by the fire commissioners or they may authorize a smaller tax levy to be collected.
This marks the second consecutive year Fire District No. 1’s proposed budget was defeated by voters. In 2017, a budget totaling $1.2 million that would have been supported through the collection of $1.1 million in taxes was rejected at the polls.
Following a review of the spending plan and discussions with the fire commissioners, the Township Committee authorized a tax levy of $896,500, which was a reduction of $239,500 from the proposed $1.1 million tax levy. The 2017 budget was reduced from $1.2 million to $1 million.
The fire district tax rate of the approved 2017 budget was 2.7 cents per $100 of assessed valuation and the average home assessment in Freehold Township was $388,672. The owner of that home paid $105 in fire district taxes.
In 2018, the average home assessment has decreased to $388,000, but the proposed budget increased the fire district tax rate to 3.84 cents per $100 of assessed valuation. Had the budget been approved by voters, the owner of a home assessed at the township average would have paid $149 in fire district taxes, an increase of $44 from 2017, according to the spending plan.