South Brunswick Taxes on the Rise Again

The South Brunswick Township Council adopted a $46.8 million municipal budget at last night's meeting that will maintain the tax rate at 72-cents per $100 of assessed valuation. However, residents can expect to see an approximately $150 increase to their tax bills reflected in a new state law that requires minimum library funding to be broken out of the municipal tax rate and listed separately on the property tax bill.

"The Governor is treating library funding like the school taxes, where it's a totally separate line item on the tax bill," said Public Affairs Coordinator Ron Schmalz."So now tax bills throughout the state will have line items for school, municipal, county, fire districts and library taxes."

The library receives tax dollars in the minimum amount required by state statute, known as 1/3 mill minimum library funding. This amounts to an increase of about 7.69-cents per $100 of assessed valuation.  Mayor Frank Gambatese said the library tax rate increase is based on the drop in South Brunswick's ratables, as the township's total assessed value dropped by 4.4 percent for 2011 to about $3.7 billion.    

With the recent passage of the school budget during last month's election that carried a 12.2-cents tax rate increase per $100 of assessed valuation, South Brunswick residents could see a combined 20-cent increase per $100 of assessed valuation on their tax bills.

Council members expressed their displeasure with seeing taxes increase, but said there were few options due to the rising costs of pension and health benefits.

"Over the last two years our pension costs have increased by about $2.2 million and our health costs have increased by about $700,000," Gambatese said.  "That's exactly where the tax increase comes from.  Those two line items alone this year are about a 7-cent increase.  We keep making cuts but we can't continue to keep making up those increases.  It's very difficult without major layoffs."

The budget includes seven layoffs and another 11 positions lost to attrition that will not be filled.  Over the last five years, South Brunswick was down 56 positions from layoffs and attrition, which reduced the township workforce from 295 people to 239 people.  

The budget was passed by a vote of 4-1, with Councilman Joseph Camarota casting the lone vote against it.  He expressed frustration with the state legislature for the position it has placed all municipalities in by not funding the pension system.

"This is predicated on what the state charges us when they send their bill out and it continues to go up," he said during last night's meeting.  "The state continues not to fund the pension fund.  The system has been underfunded and undervalued for so many years now.  The state has us all sitting here saying what can be done, and that's a problem.  They're asking for too much from us and from other towns."

The council praised the work of township employees who have sacrificed and taken on added responsibilities as a result of the diminished municipal workforce.

"South Brunswick Township has suffered but I know we'll keep marching on," said Councilman John O'Sullivan.  "There will be bigger and better years to come."

Each council member expressed their displeasure with the final product, but said they were left with little choice due to the ongoing difficulties caused by the state legislature.

"We're under the tax levy cap and we were under it before it was even put into place," said Deputy Mayor Chris Killmurray.  "But there are things we can't control.  We need someone in Trenton who remembers what it's like to sit on a dais and make decisions like this.  The decisions that are made in Trenton have a direct impact on us."

Gambatese said the township workforce has been cut as low as it can go, with services being the last remaining area to cut from.

"There's nothing here that we like in terms of the ramifications to residents," he said.  "There's nothing here that we're proud of, but we made tough decisions and that's not pleasant because it affects people's lives--both employees and residents.  We can't go any lower because then our departments can't function.

"We held off cutting services because that's what makes a township viable, is the services we perform for each other.  We hope as we go forward the legislature will start making decisions that help municipalities."