Politics & Government

Scotch Plains Announces Anticipated Tax Increase

The township says state aid cuts are largely to blame.

Scotch Plains residents will likely see an average municipal tax increase of $91.80 this year.

The council held its first public workshop on the 2010 budget Wednesday night, during which township manager Christopher Marion announced that the proposed municipal tax rate for this year is $1.518, a 7.5-cent increase over 2009. For an average assessed home of $122,400, municipal taxes are slated to rise from $1,766.23 to $1,858.03. The township's taxes make up 18 percent of a resident's total tax bill. The remaining 82 percent is covered by the schools, county and open space.

Most notable is that this year's budget is rising by just $72,120.62 over last year, a .32 percent increase. The township has imposed a salary freeze on all department heads and non-union employees, with the only raises coming to those who were mandated one under established union contracts. The manager has also eliminated all stipends for additional work performed by administrative support staff and suspended funding for two vacant positions until 2011: a part-time clerk/typist in the clerk's office and a full-time police officer.

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

As it stands, no layoffs or further reductions in force are planned or recommended.

According to Marion, the majority of the proposed tax increase can be linked to the township's loss in state aid. The state cut $626,465 in state aid to Scotch Plains in March, equating to a 22 percent decrease from last year.  That hard hit represents 6.3 cents of the 7.5-cent municipal tax rate increase.

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

"Spending's not the issue in the budget; it's revenue," Mayor Nancy Malool stated Wednesday.

That said, Councilman Kevin Glover expressed his concern during the meeting that residents won't be happy to hear about the proposed tax increase, regardless of how tight a budget they have.

"I'm not saying we can get there," Glover said of further reductions. "But I'm not about to say nothing can be done to this number. People are going to expect more."

"The only place left to go is personnel," the mayor replied. "If we don't go there, it's leaf collection or recycling. We can't cut police or administration more than they've already been cut. I think it's a really responsible budget. If we hadn't had the recent state aid loss, we'd be looking at a 1-cent tax increase, but that's not where we are now."

Wednesday night's budget session was the first of several planned over the next few weeks. Parks and Recreation Department Director Ray Poerio presented his portion of the budget to the council last night, as did Library Director Meg Kolaya.

Next week's session, scheduled for 7 p.m. May 3, will highlight the police department, public property and township revenues.

Cuts expected to hit the parks and recreation department include the elimination of the Cultural Arts Committee's budget for summer concerts this year. The mayor also proposed reallocating the $1,500 typically spent on the youth summer play program and instead spend it on something that will benefit a broader segment of the population.

The library is looking at having to close two evenings a week, eliminate the purchase of new music CDs, and cover the costs of its database program, which is one of many services slated to lose state funding when the governor's budget goes into effect July 1. Inter-library loans are also among the items on the chopping block due to state cuts.

Mayor Malool acknowledged the pains felt by both departments, but said the hurt was spread across the board this year and that as it stands, there just isn't any more money in the budget to help them.

"Every department realized reductions," she said Wednesday. "We're all in the same kind of mindset: while we'd love to do a lot of things, we're happy to just maintain what we have."

Full details on both of these departments' budget presentations will follow in separate stories.

The 2010 budget is the first under township manager Marion, who took over last summer. Almost immediately after his start, Marion began working on the budget, and on Wednesday he called it a "difficult process" that will only become harder next year if the proposed 2.5 percent hard cap gets approved. As a result, Marion said he will begin work on the 2011 budget as soon as the 2010 process is wrapped up.

Marion set a number of goals for the budget when he began his job, including making department directors and appropriate staff more involved in the development process; freezing or reducing expenditures in salaries-wages and other expenses for 2010; avoiding additional reductions in force (layoffs); and identifying potential areas for improvements and additional cost savings for 2011.

A final goal was to develop a more uniform and consistent line item budget for each municipal department. In other words, removing the vague sum of "miscellaneous" expenses or revenues and truly breaking down where the money is going or coming from.

Council members commended the manager Wednesday for that move, which they said has already given them a much better look at what they're dealing with.

Scotch Plains' 2010 budget is slated to be officially introduced at the council's May 18 meeting. It will likely be adopted June 15.

 

Scotch Proposed 2010 Municipal Budget

EXPENDITURE COMPARISON

Salaries and Wages

  • 2010: $8,899,696 ($278,128 decrease from last year)                                
  • 2009: $9,177,824

Other Expenses (including public safety, emergency management, spring yard waste pickup, fall leaf collection, and curbside recycling)

  • 2010: $7,399,281.67 ($297,593.54 increase from last year)                     
  • 2009: $7,101,688.13

Free Public Library

  • 2010: $1,386,134 ($39,699 decrease from last year)                                   
  • 2009: $1,425,833

Deferred Charges and Statutory

  • 2010: $1,826,687.08 ($97,268.08 increase)                                                   
  • 2009: $1,779,419

Capital Improvement Fund (including funding for several high priority road repairs, drainage projects and facilities-related improvements)

  • 2010: $5,000                                                                                                                
  • 2009: $5,000

Debt Service

  • 2010: $1,883,207 ($45,086 increase)                                                                
  • 2009: $1,838,121

Reserve for Uncollected Taxes

  • 2010: $1,508,000                                                                                                        
  • 2009: $1,508,000

Total

  • 2010: $22,908,005.75 ($72,120.62 increase)                                                
  • 2009: $22,835,885.13

 

REVENUE COMPARISON

Municipal State Aid

  • 2010: $2,227,587 ($626,465 decrease from last year)                                
  • 2009: $2,854,052

Fund Balance

  • 2010: $2,325,000 ($225,000 less than last year)                                         
  • 2009: $2,550,000

Uniform Construction Code Fees

  • 2010: $550,000                                                                                                          
  • 2009: $550,000

Miscellaneous

  • 2010: $2,156,381.61 ($72,900.13 increase from last year)                        
  • 2009: $2,083,481.48

Capital Surplus

  • 2010: $150,000 ($136,000 increase from last year)                                  
  • 2009: $14,000

Open Space Debt Service

  • 2010: $328,500 ($5,500 decrease from last year)                                        
  • 2009: $334,000

Interest on Investments/Deposits

  • 2010: $80,000 ($20,000 decrease from last year)                                    
  • 2009: $100,000

Amount to Be Raised by Taxation

  • 2010: $15,090,537.14 ($740,185.49 increase from last year)                 
  • 2009: $14,350,351.65

Total

  • 2010: $22,908,005.75 ($72,120.62 increase from last year)                   
  • 2009: $22,835,885.13

 


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