TAX NEWS - June 2010
New Jersey Tax: West Milford holds public hearing on municipal budget
During last week's public hearing on the budget, Township Administrator Kevin Boyle said that the budget has already been reduced from the introductory version, which would have increased the total municipal tax rate to $1.5544 per $100 of assessed value from $1.3985 in 2009.
According to Boyle, the latest numbers would set the municipal tax rate at around $1.5069. This rate would require $145 in additional contributions from the average homeowner with a property assessed at $133,700, and it includes the $41 average savings realized through the township's new solid waste disposal and collection contracts.
Erratic rate
During a May meeting to discuss the municipality's discarded draft layoff plan, Boyle announced that another $555,000 was "found" in various municipal accounts. This, he said, would have brought the average increase down to around $100. However, it was later discovered that the money did not actually exist, prompting Councilman Daniel Jurkvoic to question the timing of that erroneous announcement that had him reconsidering the need for layoffs in 2010.
Despite the confusion caused by the inaccurate budget projections, Boyle said the possibility that the average tax increase will drop to $100 or less this year remains. Still, the likelihood depends on the composition of the state budget, which is not due to be finalized before July. As a result, local officials have decided to postpone adopting the budget until the state aid figures are secured.
The township has already applied the proposed $1.38 million – or 35 percent – reduction in state aid for 2010 to the budget, but local officials are confident that some of that revenue could return this summer and provide needed tax relief.
Watershed aid
After separately conversing with state officials, both Mayor Bettina Bieri and Council President Joseph Smolinski said that they are optimistic about the prospect of receiving at least some of the $757,687 in watershed moratorium aid that the governor marked for elimination.
"I feel confident that we are going to get a good chunk of that watershed aid back," Smolinski said. "It was unfair to take it away."
If restored in full, the watershed moratorium aid could be used for tax relief that would make the average tax increase less than $80 this year. The funding could be used exclusively for tax relief or to offset government expenses and avoid the five furlough days that were designed to save the township $141,000 – or slightly less than one tax point – this year, according to Boyle.
If the aid is not restored in full, the township is prepared to contest the proposed elimination of watershed aid that has been allocated by the state to offset revenues lost from the required protection of the state's valuable fresh water resources.
Possible challenge
In a resolution adopted on April 7, the Township Council approved the filing of a formal complaint to the state's Council on Local Mandates. The state council, which was established in 1996, was created to make binding, indisputable determinations that ensure the "state mandate, state pay" 1995 amendment to the state constitution is followed.
The claim from local officials is that the elimination of the aid would make the regulations in the 2004 Highlands Act, which requires the township to protect the watershed that makes up a third of West Milford and serves the majority of the state's residents, unfunded mandates.
Township Attorney Fred Semrau said that this challenge would be a last resort effort to restore the watershed aid, which was identified in the Highlands Act as funding to be distributed in perpetuity. As a result, Semrau said he and other local officials will wait to see the state's final aid appropriations before deciding whether or not to file the complaint.
Budget growth
In the coming weeks, the council will examine possible changes to the budget. But since most of the budget has been inflated through uncontrollable, integrated expenditures like additional insurance costs, contracted salary increases, pension payments that were deferred last year and interest due on those deferrals, drastic changes are unlikely, Boyle said.
The increases in expenses have already compelled local officials to slash the road budget and cancel capital projects, as well as request salary and fee concessions from its contracted professionals in an effort to minimize the total tax increase for 2010.
Boyle said the council has consistently done its best to limit the growth in the tax rate. In the last 14 years, he said the municipal budget has increased by 61 percent – compared to increases of 91 percent for the school district and 97 percent for the county budget.
© 2009-2012 TaxRates.cc
2011 - 2012 Tax Rate Guide and Tax Help Website
