East Windsor residents will not see an increase in the municipal property tax rate for the eighth straight year, under the $22.5 million municipal budget for 2020 approved by the East Windsor Township Council at its April 21 meeting.
Officials said the municipal tax rate will remain unchanged at 43 cents per $100 of assessed valuation. The owner of a house assessed at the township average of $258,825 will pay $1,120 in municipal property taxes for 2020 – the same amount as last year.
Municipal property taxes are one item on a property owner’s total tax bill, which also includes school taxes and county taxes.
Township officials will collect a total of $12.2 million from East Windsor’s residential and commercial property owners to support the budget.
Municipalities rely on several sources of revenue to support the budget – from the use of surplus funds (savings) to miscellaneous revenues such as licenses, fees and permits, municipal court fines and costs, and a hotel tax. The remainder is raised through property taxes.
In East Windsor’s 2020 budget, alcoholic beverage licenses will generate $32,950. Court fines and fees will generate $434,248 and the hotel tax will produce $210,000 in revenue.
Construction code fees will generate $387,572. Shared service agreements for animal control, the senior citizens center and police dispatching services will provide $252,261 in revenue.
Officials will apply $3.2 million from the township’s surplus funds to support the budget. The township is slated to receive $3.5 million in state aid – an amount that has not changed since 2010.
On the spending side, the budget allocates $5.7 million for police department salaries and $412,825 in other expenses, such as general administration, support service and training.
The budget for the Department of Public Works allocates $683,401 in salaries; and $492,070 for road repairs, maintenance of municipally-owned buildings and the municipal fleet of cars and trucks.
The 2020 budget is $84,426 more than the 2019 budget, Mayor Janice S. Mironov said.
The amount to be raised by property taxes increased by $23,047 – from $12.19 million in 2019 to $12.21 million in 2020, she said. Officials could have raised the tax levy to $12.58 million for 2020, but chose not to do so.
“This really underscores the tight spending and sensitivity to the taxpayers by the mayor and Township Council. We could have increased the local (municipal) property tax rate by 7 cents,” Mironov said.
“This budget is very responsible. Overall, it is very conservative, but a very responsive budget for the taxpayers. It maintains a high level of services. It meets the needs of the taxpayers,” Mironov said.
