BY KATHY CHANG
Staff Writer
OLD BRIDGE — Mayor Owen Henry said the adoption of the 2017 budget, which carries a tax increase of $18 for the average homeowner, helps continue to move the township in the right direction.
The Township Council adopted the $54.6 million budget, which calls for an increase of $39,547, or 0.07 percent, over the 2016 municipal budget, at a council meeting on March 27.
The municipal and library tax increase is $18. For the average home assessed at the township average of $152,500, the homeowner will pay $1,592, increasing from the figure of $1,574 in 2016, according to Business Administrator Christopher Marion.
The tax rate is $1.044, which reflects a tax increase of $0.12 cents per $100 of assessed valuation over the 2016 municipal tax rate, $1.032, for the average home.
Marion said the largest portion of the budget is the salaries and wages category, which increased by $843,355, or 3.99 percent, from $21.1 million in 2016 to $21.9 million in 2017.
In addition to contractual increases, Marion said the 2017 budget includes funding for one new full-time patrol officer in the police department, one new full-time engineer in Community Development, one new full-time inspector in Uniform Construction Code and one new full-time laborer in the Public Works Department.
The township received $6.3 million in municipal state aid, which has remained flat since 2012.
For Old Bridge, the municipal tax levy for 2017 is $33.5 million, which is $577,561 below the state mandated property tax levy cap of $34.1 million.
Henry said one of the most important roles they play as a governing body is to create, adopt and implement a municipal budget.
“As mayor, this is my sixth budget and I’m proud to say that we are approximately $2 million less in our 2017 budget than the 2011 budget year prior when I took over,” he said. “In the budget we have to balance the needs of our community. We have a responsibility to make living, working and raising a family in Old Bridge affordable for people in Old Bridge.”
Marion said officials’ goals every year are to maintain or improve core municipal services for the citizens of Old Bridge, minimize tax impact and remain under statutory caps, continue to implement a sound and longer term financial plan for the town, and identify potential areas for operational improvements and/or cost savings for 2018 and 2019.
He said they face potential challenges every year with national, state and local economic conditions, weather-related emergencies and related costs, additional contractual cost increases, collective bargaining agreements and related negotiations, accumulated time payouts for retirees, increasing number of tax appeals, new and unfunded state mandates, further cuts to municipal state aid and an order to implement a municipal-wide revaluation and related costs.
“We are currently underway with negotiations of all nine of their collective bargaining units,” he said.
Marion said there are always potential opportunities of cost savings for the township noting, that officials are currently negotiating health benefits and prescription dental as well as best pricing for energy aggregation.
The tax bill is divided into portions — 20 percent covers the majority of municipal services and the remaining portion of the tax bill — 80 percent — funds the Old Bridge Public Schools, Old Bridge Public Library, Middlesex County government, Middlesex County Open Space Program and four fire districts (Cheesequake, Laurence Harbor, Madison Park and South Old Bridge).
Contact Kathy Chang at kchang@newspapermediagroup.com.
