Municipal budget carries 5-cent hike
Capital projects include park upgrades, work on water treatment plant
BY JENNIFER AMATO Staff Writer
North Brunswick residents will see a 5- cent tax rate increase under the fiscal year 2008 municipal budget, which was adopted at Monday night's Township Council meeting.

The owner a home with an assessed value of $157,000, which officials said was the township's average, will pay about $79 more in property taxes per year. The $43.96 million municipal budget is approximately 6 percent higher than the previous budget of $41.2 million.

The largest rising costs the township must cover are increased contributions to the pensions of local and state employees, significant increases in insurance costs, and increased mandates by the state Supreme Court such as the mandatory pickup of garbage at apartment complexes, according to Business Administrator Robert Lombard.

Pensions costs rose by 60 percent, and condo and apartment services rose by 36 percent over last year, according to figures provided by the township. Salaries account for 41 percent of the budget, with 63 percent of those expenses going toward public safety personnel. Twenty percent is allocated for payroll taxes and benefits, and about 19 percent is for capital improvements and debt payments.

Although overall there is one less full-time employee position in town and a new police officer hire will be deferred until December, there is a 3 percent wage increase in new labor contracts and a 2.9 percent increase in salary appropriations.

With regard to each municipal department, directors were advised to request only the minimal services required to maintain current services in order to keep tax increases low. In the Parks & Recreation Department, a new turf field will be installed at Sabella Park, remediation will begin at Veterans Park, and improvements to the Community Park will be evaluated.

In Community Development, $3.5 million will be dedicated for road improvements, and the geographical information system will be utilized.

Regarding public safety, an antenna will be moved to the Adams Lane water tank for added security and increased cell tower revenues, the closed-circuit television system will be upgraded, and the Live Scan automated fingerprinting system will be upgraded.

For the finance department, $75,000 will be used to replace obsolete equipment, the proximity building access system will be upgraded, and the GPS tracking initiative will be evaluated.

The Public Works Department will be responsible for replacing the roof of the municipal courtroom, relocating the clerk's office for more space, replacing the hot water system with a solar panel system, constructing a new vehicle storage building, replacing aging vehicles, improving the library HVAC system and parking lot, and replacing fluorescent light bulbs with more energy-efficient ones.

The township water and sewer system will see continued infrastructure improvements to the water and sewer lines and a $19 million upgrade to the water treatment plant. Unaccounted-for water will be checked via a pilot leak detection system, and the entire sewer system will be videotaped during inspections.

Outside of the individual departments, debt services have decreased in the areas of capital improvement down payments for the Sabella Park improvements and funding for unbonded costs from the 1990s, as well as for the funding of capital ordinances not financed through debt issuance. There is a five-year deferred payment for tax maps and the township master plan, and a $90,000 emergency authorization sought last year for the 2007 road project costs.

"[The] trick here is trying to absorb all of the increasing costs until we can get to the year our debt service falls," said Lombard, who expects levels to stabilize in 2012.

According to Lombard's presentation, a surplus of $7.2 million, or 16.4 percent of the operating budget, will be needed over the next four fiscal years to keep tax rates at cost-of-living levels. The increase in local revenue this year is just short of $500,000, due to debt service funding, increased court fines and fees, interest on investments and interest on delinquent taxes.

In addition, the township received $100,000 in state aid this year and has been actively pursuing, and will continue to pursue, grant money to offset municipal costs.

"The key figure there is the surplus. We're getting back to the point of being able to manage finances where we can take a little bit of money out of the surplus to use for tax relief while at the same time have efficient operations and other services coming into town that are able to be maintained," Mayor Francis "Mac" Womack said.

Womack said that although the township is utilizing some of its previous surplus accounts, next year's surplus is still larger at the end of the year than the beginning because of the revenues coming into town.

However, the mayor also said that if residents want their taxes to be kept under control, they need to speak to their legislators, because issues such as pensions and school taxes are mandated at the state level. He said that growing pension and insurance costs don't allow for discretionary extras such as road repairs, water and sewer money, and park improvements.

"We know that for the coming year things are covered, and I trust the directors when they say they know they can run their departments and provide the same services we had last year with the resources we provide in this budget," Womack said. "But that's not to say in the long term we still don't face the possibility that in keeping taxes low we won't have to make decisions between taxes and services. Things that are out of control … have to be brought in control at every level."