FW Taxes Decrease in 2011 Budget

Fanwood's average residential tax bill will decrease by nearly $20, Fanwood Chief Financial Officer Fred Tomkins announced at the Mayor and Borough Council's monthly regular meeting Tuesday night. Tomkins unveiled the decrease as he provided an overview of the borough's 2011 budget, which totals about $5.8 million.  

As described by Mayor Colleen Mahr, "There is no fat on any of these bones."

Tomkins said that long-range planning, departmental downsizing in 2009 and an increase in municipal court and construction fees helped avoid more drastic cuts due to the continuing economic recession, and offset rising public pension costs and an anticipated decline in tax revenue from tax appeals. 

"We have been fairly frugal in the budgets and addressed issues of downsizing, somewhat, even before people really took it as an issue," Tomkins said. "If we had not addressed these things sooner, we would have been in a much more difficult situation."

Mahr credited the borough's department heads for "making tough choices" as they downsized, adding that the borough's budget has remained largely flat over the past two years.   

"We are here because several years ago, we were where several communities weren’t," Mahr said. "We were downsizing government. It wasn’t easy. But we were where several communities are today." 

Tomkins emphasized that despite the tight budget, "We will not cut any services out. There's nothing eliminated. There's nothing to reduce anything we've been doing." 

Nevertheless, Mahr argued that as municipalities continue to struggle through the recession, increasing shared services "is a conversation we need to have if we value our world" in Fanwood.

The decrease comes in addition to the . Fanwood taxpayers will experience a 2.3-percent school tax decrease, offsetting a 2.2-percent increase to county taxes.

The mayor and council will hold a public hearing on the budget Tuesday, June 14.