TC BUDGET MEANS HIGHEST TAX INCREASE IN THREE YEARS

The proposed new township budget will offer the highest municipal tax percentage increase in three years, according to PATCH.

The TC, which will present the new budget on Tuesday night, expects it to mean a 2.5% tax increase, higher than last year's 1.99% increase and the 2011 0 % increase.

PATCH reports:

The final budget is $39,691,141, an increase of 2.03% over last year. Manning had introduced a budget that would increase the tax rate by over 3%, and committee members on Saturday worked to cut expenses to bring the increase down......

.....The committee also voted in favor of maintaining funding for YouthNet, the Maplewood Village Alliance, the Springfield Avenue Partnership and the Community Coalition on Race at the same levels as last year. The motion passed in a 3 – 1 vote. The sole dissenter was Leventhal, who suggested that the committee cut funding to all four non-government organizations by 25 percent. DeLuca stated at a February meeting that he would not support funding YouthNet this year, but he relented Saturday morning, saying that he feels cutting township funding at this point in the organization’s development could be “counterproductive.”