At the last budget hearing on Saturday, Township Administrator Joseph Manning revealed the budget plan, which will use about $2 million of a $2.8 million surplus to help offset the cost - noting that about $1 million of that savings is from the sale last year of the former Maplewood Village Post Office site.
The budget also includes a 2% raise for the Township Committee members, bringing their annual stipend from $4,000 to $4,080. The TC received a raise from $3,858 to $4,000 last year after going 20 years without such an increase.
"I think the Township Committee salaries should go up at whatever the bargaining units percentage is," Mayor Vic Deluca said.
TC member Marlon Brownlee added, "as long as it doesn't exceed like it did last year, which I voted against."
Manning said the initial budget projections earlier this year had a
5.79% increase to the municipal tax base, but after requests from the TC to reduce it, the current proposal is at 1.96%.
He said that was done through an increase in some revenues that were higher than expected and some cuts in requests for
departments for a proposed $41.52 million budget. Deluca said that will result in an average municipal property tax increase of $82 for a home assessed at $397,000.
"We have a struggle every year because we have no real new tax ratables and our costs go up," Manning told the TC. "Often there are one-time solutions we use, luckily the post office, the income we'll be able to use over the next year or two years ... but we don't really expand at the rate of our (cost) increases."
He later added, "that's the limitations of 90% of funding from taxpayers under real estate."
Manning said part of the savings comes from using $2 million of the $2.8 million surplus, leaving $800,000 in surplus.
Last year, the TC used $800,000 out of a $876,000 surplus.
"I am comfortable with the budget this year," Chief Financial Officer Juan Uribe said. "But if we could increase (the surplus) a little that would be good.
Among the budget changes was allocating $25,000 to the Maplewood Village Alliance to offset costs associated with mitigating parking and other effects of the former post office demolition and construction for the new housing/retail complex there.
The MVA had requested $50,000 in addition to its regular $13,500 annual Township funding. But the TC chose to provide just half.
TC Member Greg Lembrich asked if the post office developer, JMF Properties, would be required to cover any of the costs. Deluca said no.
"There's nothing in the agreement that requires them to provide any mitigation during the construction period," Deluca explained. "They are responsible for signage so I think some of the signage we'll be putting up we'll be able to give them the bill for."
Deluca said they are required to pay for some police costs.
TC member Nancy Adams said the Township should ask for some additional payment to cover the costs: "Nothing stopping us from requesting it."
Deluca added, "We can ask them, it would have to be voluntary. What would be useful is to get them to sponsor a couple of very specific requests."
Lembrich added that it "would generate some good will for them in the community."
Manning also recommended not installing new Maplecrest Park basketball courts, a project that had been proposed by former Recreation Director Keith Knudsen, who recently departed for a new job.
"I don't think we vetted this enough," Manning said, without mentioning the cost. "We have not really had discussions about that, putting additional facilities in parks, that has not been done."
Lembrich said the delay should not be for too long: "We don't have enough basketball courts in town and I think Maplecrest is an area where we can address that...I don't want that to sort of go into a black hole."
The TC will formally introduce the budget at Tuesday's meeting, 7:30 p.m. at Town Hall.
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