Township's budget for '06 checks in at $35.4 million
BY FRAIDY REISS
Correspondent

FREEHOLD TOWNSHIP - You can blame it on the state.

Homeowners can expect to see the municipal tax rate rise 2.9 cents this year to 38.8 cents per $100 of assessed valuation, but the increase would have been only 1.7 cents if not for some "clever" math on the part of the state that shortchanged the municipality, Township Administrator Thomas Antus said.

The 2006 municipal budget, which totals $35.4 million - or 4.2 percent more than last year's $34 million spending plan - was expected to be introduced at last night's Township Committee meeting. A public hearing on the budget is scheduled for May 2.

If the budget is adopted in May, homeowners will pay an additional $29 for each $100 of assessed value. That means the owner of a home assessed at $100,000 will pay $388 in municipal taxes in 2006, up from $359 in 2005. The owner of a home assessed at $300,000, who last year paid $1,077 in municipal taxes, will pay $1,164 this year, and the owner of a home assessed at $500,000, who last year paid $1,795, will pay $1,940 in municipal taxes in 2006.

In total, $11.8 million would be raised through taxes under the proposed budget, including $8.8 million from residents and $3 million from businesses, Antus said. He added that Freehold Township collects 99 percent of the taxes it is owed, a collection rate he called "astronomical, bordering on the unheard-of."

However, Antus said the tax increase would have been smaller - only $17 for each $100 of assessed value - if the state had not used "clever" bookkeeping to avoid paying $331,000 due to the township. That amount is significant, considering that each penny on the tax rate generates $302,000, he said.

Freehold Township was due the $331,000 from the state because the town was entitled to a 4.5-percent increase in its share of energy tax collections, Antus explained. Yet while the state did give the township the $331,000, it deducted the same amount from the township's Consolidated Municipal Property Tax Relief Act revenue, he said.

That way the state was able to pay the township exactly what it paid last year: $10.3 million, Antus said.

"If you're going to screw us, be clever about it," the administrator said.

At the same time, an increase of $1.1 million in municipal revenues helped keep the tax increase less than 3 cents, Antus said. With interest rates up, the township's interest on investments rose by $700,000; additionally, revenue from the construction department - from permit fees, inspection fees and fines - rose by $400,000, he said.

One of the largest spending increases in the proposed budget involves pension contributions for public employees, which rose by $435,000 to $1.9 million in the 2006 budget.

Other large spending increases include the public works department's budget, which rose 13 percent to $1.8 million because of higher fuel costs for its vehicles and higher salaries; the police department's budget, which rose 7.7 percent to $5.7 million, also because of higher fuel costs for its vehicles and higher salaries; and health care premiums for township employees, which this year rose 7.5 percent to $4 million, Antus said.

Last year Antus predicted a dramatic increase in the 2006 recreation budget because, with Opatut Park soon to open to the public, township officials expected to hire six new parks and recreation department employees. Instead, though, the department reorganized its current employees and hired one new person, Antus said.

"By better defining who does what and when, they became more efficient," he said, adding that this year's proposed recreation budget is $1.1 million, up 6 percent from last year's $1 million.

In the proposed budget, the largest single decrease in spending involves the municipal debt service, which dropped $180,000 because the township has paid off bond ordinances adopted when interest rates were higher, Antus said.

The budget process begins at the end of each calendar year when department heads submit their proposed budgets - which Mayor Anthony J. Ammiano referred to as "wish lists" - for the following year.

The township uses a zero-based budget, which means departments do not automatically receive what they received the prior year, Antus said. Instead, each year they have to justify "each and every line item," he said.

"The first thing we did [this year] was cut $521,000 from the budgets that were submitted," Antus said.

Looking ahead to 2007, Antus said Freehold Township will begin a state-mandated revaluation that will take a full year. With a revaluation, some property owners' tax bills increase, some decrease and some remain the same.

The updated property assessments and the new municipal tax rate will become effective in 2008, Antus said, which means "2007 and 2008 are just going to be a whole lot of fun around here."

Ammiano commended Antus and his staff for doing a "phenomenal job" by keeping this year's municipal tax increase to less than 3 cents, which the mayor said was "one of the lesser increases in the county."

"We're very sensitive to the residents of Freehold Township because we all pay taxes," Ammiano said. "No one wants to pay higher taxes."