Fanwood Discusses Necessary Reductions to Budget

Fanwood’s mayor and council met early Thursday morning to discuss reductions that need to be made to the borough’s 2009 budget now that it won’t be getting $398,000 in extraordinary aid from the state.

Chief Financial Officer Fred Tompkins presented the council with a rundown of which municipal departments now need additional funds, and which have excess monies.

“Knowing that we need to adjust the budget now, we went through different accounts to see where we stood,” Tompkins said. “We saw which accounts we needed to put more in, and which we needed to take out of, and those more or less balanced each other out.”

Based on his calculations, Tompkins said that six municipal accounts need an additional $95,000, while four other accounts have an excess of $104,000. In addition to the difference in those two numbers, the borough will cut nearly $59,000 from its reserve of uncollected taxes, and another $50,000 from the capital improvement fund, to bring the levy on the $8.7 million budget down by $117,927.

Those needing additional funds include the tax collector, who is owed $2,000 for preparing the bills related to applying for extraordinary aid; the Board of Health, which needs an extra $2,000 for its deputy registrar stipend and an extra $1,000 for classes, registration and the cost of “safety paper”; the police dispatchers, who need $50,000 for training and extra hours worked, and the legal department, which requires an additional $20,000 for anticipated tax appeals, labor negotiations and grievances.

Some of that last cost has been unexpected for the borough, Tompkins said. With the downturn in the economy, Fanwood has seen a large increase in the number of residents who are filing tax appeals.

“We know now that a lot of tax appeals were filed,” Tompkins said. “We had a significant amount this year, and we didn’t have that before.”

Tompkins said that some of the appeals have already been settled, most resulting in some tax reduction for the residents who filed. The borough has lost $18,000 so far, but several more appeals are still pending.

“It’s the fact of the economy, once one person files an appeal, more people want to,” he said, warning that any reductions because of tax appeals will impact the borough’s fourth quarter tax bills.

Tompkins reiterated that the borough’s taxes only make up 15 percent, or $86, of the tax increase residents will experience in 2009. The county makes up 16 percent, or $94, of that, and the school district makes up 69 percent, or $407.

“That shows how lean this budget is to begin with,” Mayor Colleen Mahr said.

How the decisions made this year will impact the 2010 budget will remain to be seen, though. Tompkins emphasized that the tax appeals the borough is facing now will hurt the 2010 budget, as will cutting into the reserve fund. But, because of the circumstances, Tompkins said they didn't have any choice but to make those moves.

Fanwood must also now allocate an additional $20,000 for its street lights, due to a substantial increase in the cost of utilities.

Borough Clerk Eleanor McGovern noted that they plan to replace all of the street light bulbs with more energy efficient ones, which should lower the costs for next year.

Councilman Anthony Parenti questioned whether there was more the borough could do other than just change the bulbs. Mayor Colleen Mahr in turn told him to think of a different angle and maybe they could get a PSE&G representative to come in and help create an action plan.

Additional concerns raised included those from Public Works Director Clint Dicksen, who previously told the council that he thought his operating budget was running short. To alleviate that, the Recreation Trust agreed to pick up the $3,000 needed for repairs on LaGrande Park. The $2,049 needed for equipment purchases was taken out of the 2008 budget instead of the 2009 one.

Dickson also expressed concern that money would run out in the event of an unexpected early snow storm. But, Tompkins noted that funds to cover something like that will have to be made up as an emergency appropriation in 2010.

“We can’t plan for snowfalls in November,” Tompkins said. “We’ll be like everyone else and deal with it.”

TV-35 Director George Weiss also has concerns that he will not have enough funds for the rest of the year. McGovern noted she needs an estimate for the cost of his new equipment before they can determine how much he needs.

Those departments that were found to have $104,000 in excess funds included streets and roads, police dispatchers' operating expenses, the NJ Transit contract and insurance.

The council will introduce the finalized amendments during its Sept. 1 agenda meeting. A public hearing and final vote on the changes will be held in the mayor and council chambers on Sept. 8.