Politics & Government

Fanwood Taxes Rise by 5.5 Percent This Year

The municipal increase averages $116.

Residents of Fanwood will see their municipal property tax bills increase by $116.96, or 5.5 percent, this year.

Mahor Colleen Mahr shared details about the borough's 2010 budget during the Fanwood seniors' meeting at Forest Road Park Monday morning. The superintendent of schools, Margaret Hayes, also attended and presented the district's budget. To read about her presentation, go here.

Fanwoodians will see their total property taxes rise by at least $656.97, Mahr said. In addition to the $116 increase in municipal taxes, the mayor noted a $117.51 average increase from Union County and a $422.50 average increase from the Board of Education (Mahr acknowledged that the school district has reported a slightly higher number — $439 — for the borough).

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"That's a lot of money," the mayor admitted to the seniors. "I get it. I completely understand."

Mahr said that the borough has determined that about 50 percent of its residents will see their taxes increase by that $657 amount, while the other 50 percent will actually see increases even higher than that.

Find out what's happening in Scotch Plains-Fanwoodwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

"Terrible, terrible, terrible," she acknowledged. "Fixed incomes, the rate of inflation down, nothing coming from the federal government, certainly nothing from the state. State aid, since I've been here, has been dwindling away. We got probably $1.1 million when I first started here in Fanwood. Now we're down to about $700,000."

Despite the increase, Mayor Mahr noted that the borough's operational department budgets have either remained flat or decreased for 2010. Revenues also remained flat, she said, which is actually an improvement from last year, when they were on the decline.

"When one DPW worker turned in his papers to resign, we did not hire on another," she said. "We made hard decisions two years ago when we reduced our police department by three and you are just as safe today as you were two years ago and that has helped. In the police department, we are not backfilling positions. We have seen operational expenses, salaries, line items, all decline, and we're seeing revenue coming out of the police department. We're definitely on the upswing now."

Employee salaries also remain the same in 2010, she said, with the exception of the Department of Public Works, which was contractually owed one.

One recent move by the borough that's helping to save money is the creation of a purchasing agent. Mahr noted that Pat Hoyne, who was already working for the borough, has taken on the added responsibility of overseeing purchases across all departments, and that her work has already begun realizing savings for the borough.

"The bottom line for Fanwood is that we're doing exactly what should be," Mahr said. "The $116 being passed on to you, the bulk of that has nothing to do with our day-to-day operations. It's the things that are tying our hands."

The mayor went as far as saying that the borough would have likely seen no tax increase this year had Gov. Chris Christie not slashed its state aid by approximately $200,000. Mahr again expressed her frustration with the weight of health care costs, pensions, and other mandated expenditures on the budget, and with the governor's claim that all municipalities are out of touch.

"I'll tell you this: I go to work every day with people who give 110 percent to the borough of Fanwood," she said. "Right or wrong, what the governor's doing is taking the problems on the state level and pushing them down here. He's taking the problems of what's going on in Trenton and he's saying, 'the Board of Educations need to get theirs acts together; they're not doing their jobs. The mayors of New Jersey are not doing what needs to be doing.' Excuse me, I don't buy that. As I heard him say he'd veto any tax increase, I thought, 'why don't you come here to Fanwood and tell me what's going on because we're doing what we should be doing here.'"

The mayor said she's hopeful for pension reform and binding arbitration, which she said would help loosen up the handcuffs on schools. She also noted how civil service reform, would push to make employee retainment based on performance like it is in the private sector.

Seniors in attendance Monday raised a number of concerns about what factors are burdening the budget, and their pocketbooks.

"We could probably lose three-fourths of the county government and wouldn't know it," Al Ebsersole said. "They're a bunch of phonies."

He went on to suggest forming a group of people representing towns across Union County who would go to the freeholders and present what they want and what they want to do away with.

Mahr noted that an idea similar to that has come up before amongst local mayors and that she and other area mayors do meet regularly to discuss the issues they face.

"We hope to step forward and eliminate line items that we're carrying in the budget or use shared services," she said.

Speaking of shared services, the mayor said the report will be going to council members in both Scotch Plains and Fanwood this month for review, and that the first public forums on it will likely be held by the second week in June. Up until now the members of the shared services initiative committee had been reviewing the report.

Another senior asked what impact the sale of Children's Specialized Hospital in Fanwood had on the borough. Mayor Mahr said that they are 100 percent on the borough's tax roll now and that she's certain other redevelopment downtown will also benefit Fanwood in the coming years.

"What we're doing with redevelopment is going to pay off," she said. " The bank property is demolished and sold, so the borough is in negotiations with that developer to buy the Livingston-Wilbur property. We are moving forward with negotiations and our hope is that in the next year or two that will be all done and there will be more ratables brought on."

The mayor and council plan to officially introduce the budget during their April 21 meeting.


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