Pennington residents will have to wait a little longer for the public hearing on the 2022 municipal budget.
The public hearing originally scheduled for May 2 was pushed back to a special meeting on May 10 at 7 p.m.
The more than $4 million projected budget was first introduced in early April and was pushed back due to the budget having to be amended.
“We have to introduce the amendment and there are a couple criteria that require the amendment to be advertised and have a public hearing on the amendment,” said Sandra Webb, chief financial officer. “The change in the water and sewer for the interest on the bonds the change exceeded 10% of the original budget, so that requires a public hearing on the amendment.”
She added that the borough would have a public hearing on the amendment and then council members would vote whether or not to adopt the budget.
“Since we are having the public hearing anyway we may as well include two grants in the amendment. That and a whopping 19 cent change on the American Rescue Plan funding pretty much sums up the whole amendment.”
When the budget was introduced on April 4, residential and commercial property owners would experience 1-cent increase in the municipal tax rate for 2022.
In 2022, the municipal tax rate is projected to be 50 cents per $100 of assessed valuation. The owner of an average home assessed home at $$487,000 pays $2,435 in municipal taxes. The municipal tax rate increased by one cent from 49 cents in 2021.
An owner of an average home assessed at $487,000 paid $2,386 in 2021 municipal taxes.
Municipal taxes are one item on a property owner’s total tax bill, which also includes school taxes and Mercer County taxes.
The amount an individual pays in taxes is determined by the assessed value of his home and/or property, and the tax rate that is set by each taxing entity.
The borough’s residential and commercial owners support the municipal appropriations through a tax levy. In 2022, the tax levy is projected to be $2.8 million, a slight increase from 2021’s $2.70 million that residential and commercial property owners paid in 2021.
With the revenues portion of the 2022 budget, Pennington would use $492,299 from the surplus as revenue in the budget. In the 2021 budget, officials used $438,915 from the surplus funds as revenue in the budget.
Additional revenues projected in the budget include $110,000 in uniform construction code fees, $187,581 in state aid, which is the same amount received in 2021; $60,000 in reserve for liquor license and $43,000 in trash collection fees.
For the appropriations side of the budget, top items are $680,575 in police salaries and wages, $321,176 on municipal debt service, and $285,585 in road repairs and maintenance salary and wages.