The administration has trimmed $60,000 from its originally proposed municipal budget for 2011, but it is still not enough to reduce the tax rate by a penny, as members of the Township Council have requested.
Business Administrator Robert Hary told the council during its March 21 meeting that a retirement in one of the township’s departments resulted in the reduction of one position in the township’s budget this year, and that the township will move someone in the clerk’s office over to another department to fill the gap.
That resulted in a reduction in $30,000 in salaries and wages. That was combined with savings from the elimination of the animal control officer, which saved the township costs associated with overtime, health insurance, social security tax, and salary associated with that position. The net savings was $85,000.
However, the township estimated its agreement with East Windsor for animal control services will cost the township about $33,000 — $25,000 of which was included in the budget. That brought the total savings down to $60,000, but that is only one-tenth of a penny on the tax rate in this year’s budget, and council had asked for cuts that would equal a full penny.
But those savings could change if the township reconsiders the elimination of the animal control officer (see next story ).
Council President Kamal Khanna suggested that Councilman George Borek and Councilwoman Diane Ciccone work with the rest of the council members and the administration on a solution that would have everyone in agreement. No date has been set yet for further discussion.
Originally, council members asked the administration to come up with some fine tuning cuts to areas like overtime and Public Works and report back to the council on March 21. They were concerned with the estimated tax increase for property owners, who on average, will see an increase of $108.
However, when it came to looking at overtime costs and hiring per diem employees to cover duties handled by full-time employees, Hary said it “just didn’t make sense in this environment to make an adjustment.”
Mayor Shing-Fu Hsueh presented his $37.4 million municipal budget for 2011 to the council in February, and the council has been studying ways to cut costs since. The budget calls for the lowest increase in 17 years — only $358,000, or less than 1 percent, over last year.
Despite the 0.97 percent increase, the township will be burdened with a large increase in state-mandated pension contributions and a loss of more than half a million dollars in revenue — translating into a 5.3 percent increase for taxpayers through the municipal tax levy.
The tax levy, however, still falls within the 2 percent cap the state has mandated for all municipalities and school boards because of the exceptions allowed by the state.
The tax rate will increase by 2.5 cents, from 34.5 cents per $100 of assessed value to 37 cents — an increase of 7.39 percent, according to budgetary figures presented to council on March 14.
This means that the owner of a home assessed at the township average of $527,376 (a decrease from last year’s average assessment of $534,787) would pay $1,951.56 this year. The budget handout showed that last year’s average tax bill under the old assessment was $1,842.77. So, the average tax bill has increased by $108.80 — a 5.9 percent increase.
