Municipal Budget Introduced With 3-Cent Tax Rate Increase

The South Brunswick Township Council voted to introduce a budget Tuesday night that would raise the municipal tax rate by 3-cents.

If adopted as it stands, the tax rate would increase from 72.1-cents to about 75-cents per $100 of assessed valuation. The increase was whittled down from when the  tax rate bump.

The municipal budget, which had to be formally introduced by March 15 or the first meeting thereafter, is still expected to undergo changes in the weeks ahead.

"I'm satisfied with a 3-cents increase," said Mayor Frank Gambatese. "Would we like to come in at zero? Sure. But we don't want to sacrifice services that people really enjoy just to save a penny from the tax rate. That doesn't make sense to me. That penny could be better served providing services to 44,000 people."

Under the mandated 2-percent tax cap, the township was permitted to raise taxes by about 10-cents due to the cap allowing the addition of health, pension and emergency costs. 

While calling the introduction of the budget a formality to satisfy state regulations, Councilman Joseph Camarota said he would not support a budget with a 3-cent increase.

"I have clearly stated that I will not vote for this budget at 3-cents," Camarota said. "We're mid-way through the process and we still have to meet with recreation, code enforcement, the senior center and health department."

Camarota said the township must continue to look at consolidation and shared service opportunities both within the municipal workforce and surrounding communities to reduce spending.

"We've talked about shared services internally within the town and with other towns, like we're doing with (911) dispatching," he said. "In the town, I think there will be some things we can do, but we're waiting to see some of the reports from the administration for their suggestions. We've already done some consolidation with land use boards. Code enforcement and planning now share clerical staff, so those are some of the things we need to look at."

During budget discussions last year, the township considered the feasibility of shuttering its health department. South Brunswick maintains a community partnership with limited contracts for service with the municipalities of Edison and Woodbridge, and is one of three municipalities in Middlesex County to operate its own health department.

With an annual cost of about $400,000 to maintain, South Brunswick examined the potential savings from using the county's health department instead, which came in with a reduction of about $40,000. The township decided to maintain the current health department based on those projections, but could re-examine the plan again this year.

"Last year we found the health department still makes sense to do on our own versus the county," Camarota said. "I know a lot of people support it, and the board does a great job, but if we can save a couple hundred thousand dollars we need to look at it. But if we're only saving $40,000 then it's not worth it."

The township has cut spending from $45.9 million in 2008 to $44.6 million last year. South Brunswick has reduced the municipal workforce by 44 employees during that time frame.  

Over the last seven years, the township's ratable base has decreased by $180 million, with the drop attributed to the impact of corporate tax appeals, officials said.

Last year, 391 tax appeals were filed in the township, up from about 180 appeals in 2011, when approximately 100 companies successfully sued the township for a tax reduction. That reduction resulted in the loss of over $100 million in ratables, with $98.5 million lost to commercial and industrial tax appeals. 

The township voted last year to lower the settlement limit from $50,000 to $25,000 on appeals. Camarota said the new limit helped reduce the loss of ratables, which he said indirectly contributed to the South Brunswick Board of Education being able to formulate a 2013-14 school budget that carries no tax increase.

"We took an aggressive stance on tax appeals and went from losing about $100 million to about $30 million, so our taxable base roughly stayed the same," he said. "This helped the school budget come in with a zero-cent increase, because we re-focused our efforts to challenge appeals from businesses."

South Brunswick's average total tax bill was $8,520.57 last year, which remained above the state average of $7,870.28.

South Brunswick's average municipal bill came in at $1,589.53, below the state average of $2,324.66. South Brunswick's average school tax bill came in at $5,413.39, which was above the state average of $4,120.16.

With Middlesex County adopting a $410.96 million dollar budget last week that carries an increase of about 2 percent, the average county tax bill will come in at about $1,537.

"It's going to be tough to get the municipal budget down to a zero increase. I'm mildly optimistic but not overly optimistic," Camarota said. "We keep cutting and cutting, but eventually we'll get to a point where we're looking at which services we want to cut. I don't know if we're there yet."

Over the last five years, South Brunswick is down 56 positions from layoffs and attrition, which reduced the township workforce from 295 people to 237 full time employees and 22 part time employees.

With the reduction in employees, Mayor Gambatese said he was concerned about an interruption in services should the township further merge or consolidate positions, as the council proceeds with budget hearings weighing a tax reduction against the potential loss of services.

"The council wants to look at some areas for consolidation, but it has to be proven to me that the savings we could get will not interrupt the services in this township," Gambatese said.