The Bordentown Township Committee has introduced a $14.58 million municipal budget for 2019 and expects to adopt the spending plan on April 8.
The township’s residential and commercial property owners will pay $6.54 million in property taxes to support the municipal budget. Other revenues will make up the balance of the spending plan.
According to township officials, the municipal tax rate of 58 cents per $100 of assessed valuation for 2019 represents an increase of 1.7 cents from 2018. Officials said that between 2013-18, the municipal tax rate increased one cent per $100 of assessed valuation.
The average home in the township is assessed at $241,875 and the owner of that home will pay $1,424 in municipal taxes in 2019, which officials said is about $40 more than 2018.
Municipal taxes are one item on a property owner’s total tax bill, which also includes taxes paid to the Bordentown Regional School District, to Burlington County and to a fire district, among other assessments.
Municipal officials said the total tax levy in Bordentown Township to support all of those taxing entities would be $40.87 million in 2019.
“The Township Committee is proud to present this budget to the public. A great deal of hard work and thought went into crafting this document,” Mayor Stephen Benowitz said.
“As a committee, we are proud of our track record of improving municipal services and growing our community while keeping the municipal portion of your tax bill, approximately 17 percent of every tax bill, stable. This is the first increase since 2013 and amounts to less than a half-percent per year for this seven-year period,” Benowitz said.
Officials said the 2019 budget needed to account for rising costs for statutory pension obligations, health benefits, debt service and contractual salary commitments.
The budget also includes capital funds, which officials said will be allocated for continued street paving, parks and recreation improvements, and other infrastructure projects.
According to officials, an additional $970,000 was allocated for the early payment of debt service, which they said would save money on interest charges.
“I am especially proud of the methods the committee undertook to create the budget. We pride ourselves on making the budget process fully transparent and inclusive,” Benowitz said. “Our staff has done an excellent job of preparation for the 2019 budget and exercising sound long-term financial planning for future budgets.
“They remain committed to providing the outstanding public services our residents, businesses and visitors have come to expect. The township will continue to grow and prosper, and the committee is focused on improving the quality of life for everyone,” he said.
At a committee meeting on Feb. 25 when officials discussed the budget, Chief Financial Officer Jeff Elsasser explained the reasoning behind the proposed tax increase for 2019.
“If you go back and look at the last six years in the budget, you will notice two things: taxes were flat, but the fund balance (money from savings) that was used in the budget grew every year. We cut that,” Elsasser said.
“We went from $2 million in our surplus use in the budget, thus basically funding our own budget, and we cut it down to $1.2 million. By maintaining that same level while also growing the departments and the services the town is providing, it is setting us up in these situations where in the next five, 10 or 15 years down the road, we are not going to be hitting these situations where we have one year where their is a spike in taxes.
“We want to keep it as flat as possible,” Elsasser said. “We are very confident that doing this slight increase this year is going to allow us to maintain a significant level of service that residents have grown to expect for all of the new developments that are coming in, hopefully for years to come, barring any unforeseen circumstances.”
More detail, including the full 2019 budget, is available on the township’s website, at Town Hall, at the Bordentown Library and at Bordentown Regional High School.
