EDISON — After much discussion, the Edison Township Council has voted 5-2 to adopt a $133.81 million budget for 2018. The budget will increase municipal taxes $32 for the owner of a home assessed at the township average of $179,000.
The 2018 budget is up $4.13 million (3.09 percent) from the 2017 budget of $133.84 million.
“My administration drafted a responsible, economical budget,” Mayor Thomas Lankey said in a statement. “Its nominal tax increase will preserve first-rate services for our residents and continue to move Edison forward.”
Municipal taxes on a home assessed at the township average of $179,000 will be $2,338, up $32 (1.4 percent) from last year’s $2,306. The total municipal tax rate, including the library tax rate, will be $1.306 per $100 of assessed valuation.
The amount to be raised through taxes levied on Edison’s commercial and residential property owners will be $93.34 million, up $1.91 million (2.10 percent), from $91.42 million. Other revenues total $44.64 million, up $2.22 million (5.23 percent), from $42.42 million.
Edison’s largest expense, $53.5 million (39 percent of the budget), pays for public safety (police). The second largest expense is insurance costs, about $27 million (19.5 percent of the budget).
“Providing insurance coverage is a challenge for every town,” Lankey said. “Each year, my administration carefully reviews our coverage and claims. We routinely look for the most cost-efficient way to provide these employee benefits and ensure that public properties are protected. It is an uphill struggle.”
The total value of all ratables in Edison is $7.14 billion, up $47.84 million (0.67 percent), from $7.10 billion.
Since Lankey took office in 2014, the township’s total taxable property value has gone up by $110 million as the result of new commercial and corporate investments in Edison.
“Edison is clearly an attractive destination for business investors,” he said. “We continually strive to be even more attractive by improving our infrastructure, repaving roads, preserving and beautifying our open spaces, and offering the best possible services.”
Council Vice President Leonard Sendelsky and council members Robert Diehl, Alvaro Gomez, Sam Joshi and Michael Lombardi voted “yes” on a motion to adopt the 2018 budget at a council meeting on July 25. Council President Ajay Patil and Councilman Joseph Coyle voted “no” on the motion.
“Most of our council members recognize our fiscal constraints. They clearly understand our community’s needs and they voted to support this responsible spending plan,” the mayor said.
Coyle, who expressed many issues he had with the budget during a work session on July 23, apologized for his frustrated tone during that meeting.
“I had to learn the budget in six weeks,” he said, lifting a stack of budget papers. “I reached out to each one of our colleagues … despite my tone, each council member took my call to negotiate and talk about this budget.”
Coyle said he did not want to delay the vote on the budget, however, he said he would continue to advocate for an economic development coordinator, and ways to market the township to bring in more ratables, and for an aide to the council of the fifth largest municipality in the state, which he suggested at the work session.
Patil thanked the members of the administration for their efforts in putting together the 2018 budget.
“Having sat on the council for the past two-and-a-half years, I know firsthand it is not an easy process,” he said. “[However] since this budget was introduced, I have expressed my concerns and highlighted opportunities to make it better.”
Patil said residents have the right to expect the budget to include a long-term vision that will expand Edison’s tax base, increase ratables and ultimately lead to much sought property tax relief.
“In many ways this budget attempts to do that … we cannot ignore the evident systematic challenges this budget ignores,” he said.
Patil said he is disappointed the 2018 budget does not address quality of life and infrastructure issues to the level he expected, including short-term relocation for programs and services while officials move to build a new community center, as well as vacant housing and traffic issues.
“I don’t believe there are sufficient internal controls to justify the spending increases reflected in this budget,” he said. “We were surprised to hear formalized reviews were not in place, there is a lot of room for improvement of quality controls. I also feel we are too dependent on outside consultants who are not invested in our town, instead of hiring qualified in-house professionals.”
Patil said he was not willing to pass on additional tax increases to residents without first addressing systematic problems in the budget.