Manalapan puts $31.7M budget in place for 2008
Owner of home assessed at township average to pay about $150 more
BY KATHY BARATTA Staff Writer

MANALAPAN - The Township Committee unanimously adopted a $31.7 million municipal budget for 2008 at its meeting on June 25, but not before hearing from some critics.

The owner of a home that is assessed at the township average of $431,133 will pay $150 more in municipal taxes in 2008 than in 2007, according to Manalapan officials.

The Township Committee will collect a local tax levy of $17,981,176 from property owners to support the $31.7 million budget. The next largest source of revenue after the local tax levy is state aid, at $4,988,361.

In 2008, the municipal tax rate will increase by 3.6 cents, from 25 cents per $100 of assessed valuation to 28.6 cents per $100 of assessed valuation.

That means the owner of a home assessed at $431,133 will pay about $1,230 in municipal taxes in 2008, up from the $1,077 that was paid in 2007. The owner of a home assessed at $600,000 will pay about $1,715 in municipal taxes in 2008, up from the $1,500 that was paid in 2007.

Municipal taxes are one part of the 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.

Municipal property taxes pay for all operations in town hall, including the police department, township administration, the planning and zoning offices, parks and recreation, public works and municipal professionals such as attorneys, engineers and planners.

Salaries and wages contained in the 2008 budget include $7.4 million for the police department; $1.8 million for the Department of Public Works and parks maintenance; and $1.2 million for government services.

Operating expenses contained in the budget include $4.8 million for utilities, sanitation and landfill; $3.7 million for insurance; $2.7 million as the reserve for uncollected taxes; $2.6 million for state mandates; $2.6 million for debt service; and $300,000 for capital improvements.

The 2008 budget will use $3.7 million from the township's surplus (savings) account as revenue.

Manalapan's 2007 municipal budget totaled $29.7 million and was supported through the collection of $15.2 million in local property taxes.

Manalapan's 2006 municipal budget totaled $28.8 million and was supported through the collection of $11.9 million in local property taxes.

Officials said nine positions have been eliminated through attrition in the last two years and they said cost-saving shared services agreements have been initiated with local school boards, neighboring communities and Monmouth County.

During the public hearing on the budget that was held before the vote to adopt the spending plan, Kalman "Butch" Budai and Steve Johnson, who both ran unsuccessfully in the Township Committee Republican primary in June, addressed the governing body.

Johnson said tax relief for property owners would be realized if The Village at Manalapan is built. The Village at Manalapan is a 500,000-square-foot commercial retail center planned for the corner of Millhurst Road and Route 33. The project has received preliminary approval from the Planning Board, but is not moving forward at the present time.

Johnson said Manalapan could raise $100,000 if billboard-type signs were permitted to be placed at township athletic fields.

"I would like to see a plan for next year to offset taxes," he said.

Mayor Michelle Roth said 88 percent of the annual municipal budget is made up of statutorily mandated costs and said there is only so much that can be done with the remaining 12 percent "wiggle room."

Budai questioned what had been cut from the Department of Public Works (DPW) and asked why, when the members of the governing body were talking about fiscal belt-tightening, they had recently purchased one truck for $500,000.

Budai said he believes officials are spending more than should be spent on DPW equipment and costs. He advocated assigning some of the DPW's duties to private contractors instead of providing what he called the "wish list" fulfillment of requested equipment.

Township Administrator Tara Lovrich said having the DPW take care of Manalapan's roads and other related duties is more cost-effective than hiring a private firm to perform the work. She said the DPW's budget was reduced by $5,000 in the 2008 budget and was the only department to see a cut.

Lovrich said the $500,000 expenditure referred to by Budai was not used to buy only one truck. She said that expense was for two trucks and other needed media and equipment upgrades for other departments.

"We have 30 men (staffing DPW) and 150 miles of road. The thinking is less men and more equipment. That equipment is what makes Manalapan what it is," Lovrich said.

Committeeman Richard Klauber said officials provide the employees with the equipment to do most of the major municipal projects in-house because "it would cost twice as much to farm it out."

Reciting the duties performed by the DPW employees, Roth said, "We replace equipment on a rotational basis" based on a professional audit "of needs that dictates who gets what and when."

At the May introduction of the budget, Deputy Mayor Susan Cohen suggested that members of the Township Committee not accept municipal medical benefits or the annual stipend they receive for serving on the governing body.

Cohen, a Republican, said she does not take any municipal health insurance coverage because she thinks the money should be used to pay other municipal costs.

At the June 25 public hearing on the budget, resident Gloria Close said she had been shocked to learn that health benefits are provided to elected officials. She chided the rest of the governing body for taking any of the offered benefits and salary, noting that her husband is unemployed and saying they struggle to meet their own health insurance costs.

Close is a member of the Manalapan Republican County Committee, an elected group of residents who help to select individuals who run for public office.

Roth said the salary and benefits package the committee members are entitled to receive as elected officials is a modest, but appreciated compensation to them for the duties they each perform in their capacity as a member of the Township Committee.

She said she spends at least 40 hours per week performing the duties of her office and said the other members of the governing body also put in many hours away from their family and jobs and are therefore entitled to the compensation if they choose to accept it.

Figures provided by the administration showed a breakdown of the total cost for the salary and health benefits package that is available to all the members of the governing body.

According to the figures, the salary (stipend) is about $7,400 per governing body member and totals $37,355. The cost to the average assessed property owner is about $2.59 a year.

The health benefits are broken into two components, medical and dental. The total medical cost of $53,176 averages out to a cost of $3.63 a year per household for medical benefits. Dental benefits total $4,201, which is a cost of about 43 cents per household.

The total annual cost for salary and benefits for the committee members is about $6.65 for each property owner with an average home assessment of just over $431,000.