By Peter Elacqua
Staff Writer
MARLBORO – With a 5-0 vote by the Township Council, Marlboro’s municipal budget for 2017 has been put in place and is expected to result in an $8 decrease in municipal taxes for the owner of a home assessed at the township average.
The $36.8 million budget was adopted on April 20 by council President Jeff Cantor, Vice President Randi Marder, Councilwoman Carol Mazzola, Councilman Scott Metzger and Councilman Michael Scalea.
No one from the public commented on the budget when given the opportunity to do so.
“I am proud to say that taking into account our winter storm emergency costs, the budget includes a reduction in the amount to be raised by taxation this year and that is due to the hard work by everybody involved,” Mayor Jonathan Hornik said.
“I thank the council members for their cooperation with the administration and for their hard work during this process and I want to thank our Business Administrator Jonathan Capp, our Chief Financial Officer Ulrich Steinberg, as well as everybody involved in this process,” the mayor said.
Under Marlboro’s form of government, the administration develops the budget and presents it to the council. The council members review and adopt the spending plan.
The $36.8 million budget was unchanged from the document that was introduced on March 2. The spending plan will be supported by the collection of $26.27 million in taxes from Marlboro’s residential and commercial property owners. Other revenues will account for the remaining $10.53 million in appropriations, according to municipal officials.
The 2017 budget is expected to result in an $8 decrease in municipal taxes for an individual who owns a home that is assessed at the township average of $494,179, according to municipal officials.
In 2016, Marlboro’s budget totaled $36.6 million and the tax levy was $26.27 million. Officials have held the tax levy stable from 2016 to 2017.
The municipal tax rate in 2016 was 36.7 cents per $100 of assessed value. The average home was assessed at $494,873 and the owner of that house paid $1,816 in municipal taxes.
In 2017, the average home assessment is $494,179 and the tax rate is projected to be 36.6 cents per $100. The owner of that home will pay $1,808 in municipal taxes, a decrease of $8 from a year ago.
Property owners pay taxes based on the assessed value of their property.
Municipal taxes are one item on a property owner’s tax bill, which also includes Monmouth County taxes, Marlboro K-8 School District taxes, Freehold Regional High School District taxes, a fire district tax and other assessments.
The budget’s anticipated amount of state aid for 2017 is $2.3 million, the same as in 2016. Surplus funds (savings) being used as revenue in the 2017 budget are $4.2 million, which is the same amount of surplus that was used in 2016.
In a budget statement, Hornik said, in part, that “the proposed budget is under the state (tax) levy cap by $2.55 million and it is also $1.9 million under the state spending cap. The township is well under the state established limits on both taxation and spending.”
He said, “We have held budget increases in check through a reduction in full-time employees, by more than 11 percent since 2007, consolidating government departments and authorities, working with employees to trim salary and wage costs, and cutting operating budgets through efficiency measures. … Reducing the size of government has not diminished our successes nor our ability to plan for the future.”
