S.B. introduces municipal budget
Preliminary numbers show no increase in taxes
BY CHRIS MURINO Staff Writer
Municipal taxes will not increase in 2008, according to a presentation made by South Brunswick manager Matthew Watkins at a council meeting Feb. 26.

Watkins presented a tentative budget proposal of $49.5 million and stated that the council's directives, which were to not cut any services, to not increase taxes and to meet the state levy cap, were all met by the proposal. The budget will be officially adopted in the next few months.

Local taxes will make up about 16 percent of the budget and the average citizen will be responsible for paying about $1,200. The average assessed value of a home in South Brunswick is $192,000.

A new transit department will also be implemented related to the SMART bus system. SMART (South Brunswick Municipal Area Residential Transit) is the intratownship shuttle bus service that might clear up some traffic problems in the township.

"We want to get it off this year, provided the state doesn't mess us up," Watkins said.

Watkins said there would be various challenges to the budget, the biggest being the implementation of the third round of the Council on Affordable Housing (COAH) regulations. The new regulations call for an increase of 613 affordable housing units in the township by the year 2018. The township has been opposed to the regulations since they were released, believing it is an unreasonable request.

Another challenge will come in the form of the town's assessed values and equalization rate, both of which have decreased. The equalization rate is based on an assessed value of a property. If a property is assessed at $400,000 and the township's equalization rate is 50 percent, then the township would assess the property at $200,000. Township spokesman Ron Schmalz said this is mainly due to the downward turn in the economy.

"The equalization rate has been a problem ever since 2001, but the drop has lessened to a great degree," Watkins said.

Since 2001, when the rate was at 100 percent, there has been a loss of over 50 percent of value. The rate dropped again in 2007 by another 2.7 percent, dropping the rate to 47 percent.

There are also some unknowns that could affect the budget. Watkins mentioned that the state's budget could cause some changes to the township's proposal.

Overall, there are many components to the budget. Forty-one percent goes to salaries, 36 percent to operational expenses, 15 percent to capital projects and debt management, 5 percent to uncollected taxes and 3 percent to grants.

Watkins said there have been 15 personnel reductions in the past four years, which helped cut down the amount of money needed for salaries and wages. However, contract negotiations could change this number.

"We're negotiating with five of the six labor unions," Watkins said. "We don't know what a lot of the costs of these contracts will be."

About $200,000 was cut from the operational budget, a decrease of over 4 percent, according to Watkins.

Watkins said the township is working to continue with many capital projects, including open space acquisition.

"This year we crossed over the threshold of 2,000 acres," Watkins said.

"If someone would've toldme we'd have 2,000 acres that would be set aside and never be built on, I would have told them we couldn't accomplish that," said Mayor Frank Gambatese of the program, which started in 1999.

Gambatese said the budget, as a whole, was a very good one because it allowed the township to continue its services. He encouraged the council to take a long look at the budget to make its recommendations.

"It's through your prodding that we're able to look at issues we may not have looked at before," the mayor said.