Officials taking another look at town budget
Manalapan committee tables action June 13; vote expected June 27
BY KATHY BARATTA
Staff Writer

Manalapan officials will spend another week examining the proposed $29.5 million municipal budget for 2007 to see if there is any way to cut costs and a looming tax increase.

During a Manalapan Township Committee meeting on June 13, municipal officials deadlocked on a motion to approve the budget and then voted to table the spending plan and to take another look at it.

The budget is expected to come up for a vote at the committee's June 27 meeting.

Property owners are expected to take a hit this year as the amount to be raised in taxes to support the budget jumps from $11.9 million in 2006 to a proposed $15.2 million in 2007.

The total budget for 2006 was $28.8 million. While total spending is up $700,000, the tax levy has increased by $3.3 million.

According to a recent revaluation of all Manalapan property, the municipality's worth increased from $2.5 billion in 2006 to $6.1 billion in 2007.

According to information provided by the township, in 2006 the average home in Manalapan was assessed at $178,500 and paid $846 in municipal taxes.

Following the revaluation, the average home in Manalapan is now assessed at $429,603 and will pay an estimated $1,056 in municipal taxes, representing an increase of $210 to the owner of a home who saw his home's assessed value increase as noted.

Some property owners could, however, see their taxes drop as a result of the revaluation.

The first motion made regarding the $29.5 million budget at the June 13 meeting was to approve the spending plan.

Deputy Mayor Michelle Roth and Commit-teeman Richard Klauber voted to approve the budget. Mayor Andrew Lucas and Commit-teeman Anthony Gennaro voted not to approve the budget.

Committeewoman Susan Cohen, who joined the governing body that evening, abstained.

Lucas said, "I see no problem with waiting two weeks to sharpen our pencils," and added that he wanted a chance to confer with Gennaro on the spending plan.

The 2-2 vote, which meant the budget was being defeated, was reconsidered after township clerk Rose Ann Weeden observed that if the budget was voted down it would eventually have to be reintroduced and readvertised at additional expense for Manalapan.

Following a five-minute recess, a motion to reconsider the first motion was approved and that was followed by a vote to table the budget until June 27.

In voting to approve the budget, Roth said, "It is not realistic to think taxes can always stay flat." She was referring to the fact that in 2005 and 2006 a majority of the governing body approved budgets which reduced municipal taxes by $10 or less for the average homeowner.

That will not be the case this year.

Lucas observed that except for Klauber and Cohen, who were not in office for last year's budget adoption, "We all voted on a budget that artificially kept taxes low," adding, "it is very unfair that the state turns its fiscal mismanagement on us."

Klauber, who together with Lucas constituted the governing body's finance committee, said they worked for months on the $29.5 million proposal.

"We had months to work on this budget. Unfortunately, we had a $4 million deficit to deal with," he said. "You raise taxes only after you've tried everything else. We went line by line on this budget to try to avoid doing it. Unfortunately we could only cut $1 million, which leaves us in a $3 million hole. No one wants to raise taxes - we all pay them, but unfortunately, that's what we have to do."

Roth, who voted against the 2006 budget, said, "When you have a financial problem and don't address it, it will compound. We can no longer ignore things and offer a false sense of security."

In noting that one item which led to this year's deficit was an over-anticipation of construction fees to be collected by Manalapan, Lucas said the 2007 budget was prepared with a "much more conservative estimate for this year's construction fees."

He also said officials are planning to move an employee from the finance department into the tax assessor's office in order for ongoing updates to property valuations to be possible. He said doing so would mean that "revaluations can be ongoing and therefore the township will never have to face a reval like this (year's) again."

Lucas said he estimated the move could result in savings to Manalapan of about $1 million because future revaluations would not have to be contracted out like the project was this year.

The mayor said that "due to the state's 4 percent cap, if we don't raise taxes this year, we face massive cuts next year. The only thing I hate more than taxes is inefficiency in government and that's why I'm working so hard to trim costs."

Municipal taxes are one part of a property owner's overall property tax bill, which also includes Manalapan-Englishtown Regional School District taxes, Freehold Regional High School District taxes, Monmouth County taxes and several other assessments.