Transfers needed to cover holes in budget
BY KATHY BARATTA
Staff Writer

MANALAPAN — The members of the Township Committee recently found it necessary to transfer almost $250,000 in budgeted funds among several departments.

Noting that all municipal depart-ments had been warned to “stop spending,” acting administrator Tara Lovrich informed Mayor Drew Shapiro and the rest of the Township Committee that a resolution to move the money was needed in order for the departments receiving the funds to continue operating.

Shapiro said he was not happy about having to make the transfers. He noted that if an emergency transfer of funding is needed by year’s end, “there is very little money to transfer.”

Lovrich noted that in the event of unforeseen and uncontrollable circumstances such as extreme weather or snow emergencies, the township would have to make emergency appropriations.

Manalapan’s municipal budget this year totals $28.6 million. The spending plan is supported through the collection of $11.9 million in local property taxes. For the second year in a row, the committee lowered the municipal tax rate. In 2006, the municipal tax rate decreased from 47.4 to 47.37 cents per $100 of assessed valuation.

Committeeman Joseph Locricchio challenged Shapiro’s assertion that the transfer of funds among departments put Manalapan in a precarious position, raising the possibility of the need for emergency appropriations.

In response, Lovrich explained that by the time the governing body adopts the municipal budget each year, each municipal department has already spent about 35 percent of its annual budget.

Also, noted Lovrich, the overtime that the township’s inspectors put in during the Manalapan Englishtown Middle School renovations and construction work inspections put a dent in the budgets that had been planned for the departments that were affected by the overtime costs.

“The construction and fire (inspection) departments were hit hard by MEMS and wind storms,” Lovrich said, noting that natural disasters had also played a part in driving up certain costs.

The total of $248,325 was moved from budget lines such as administrative and police salary and wages in order to cover increased tipping fees at the county landfill generated by increased trash and recycling collections.

Lovrich said the appropriation of the extra $50,000 each needed to cover tipping fees at the landfill and recycling fees became necessary because more houses closed this year than was anticipated. Manalapan provides municipal collection of trash and recyclable materials.