Pennington property owners will experience a slight tax increase following the Borough Council’s adoption of a $4.8 million municipal budget to fund borough operations in 2022.
Council President Kit Chandler, Councilwoman Katrina Angarone, Councilman Charles Marciante, and Councilwoman Deborah Gnatt voted “yes” to adopt the budget at a special meeting on May 10.
Councilwoman Nadine Stern and Councilman Ken Gross were absent from the meeting.
According to Pennington, the 2022 municipal budget includes increased funding for state pension contributions, Pennington Borough Library, the legal budget, and police salary and wages.
Pennington’s municipal appropriations are expected to decrease to $4.1 million for 2022 after $4.8 million was appropriated in 2021 for the municipal budget.
The borough’s residential and commercial owners support the municipal appropriations through a tax levy. In 2022, the tax levy is expected to be $2.8 million, a slight increase from 2021’s $2.7 million that residential and commercial property owners paid to support the budget in 2021.
In 2022, the municipal tax rate is projected to be 50.2 cents per $100 of assessed valuation. The owner of an average home assessed home at $487,000 will pay $2,444 in municipal taxes.
The municipal tax rate in 2021 was 49 cents. An owner of an average home assessed at $487,000 paid $2,386 in 2021 municipal taxes.
Municipal taxes are one item on a property owner’s total tax bill, which also includes school taxes and Mercer County taxes.
The amount an individual pays in taxes is determined by the assessed value of his home and/or property, and the tax rate that is set by each taxing entity.
On the revenues portion of the 2022 budget, Pennington will use $492,299 from the surplus as revenue in the budget. In the 2021 budget, officials used $438,915 from the surplus funds as revenue in the budget.
Additional revenues in the 2022 budget include $110,000 in uniform construction code fees; $187,581 in state aid, which is the same amount received in 2021; $60,000 in reserve for liquor license; $43,000 in trash collection fees; and $35,852 from Verizon/Comcast franchise fee.
For the appropriations portion of the budget for 2022, the budget will fund appropriations such as $680,575 in police salaries and wages, $321,176 on municipal debt service, $285,585 in road repairs and maintenance salary and wages, $255,160 for garbage and trash removal, $245,000 on payment of bond principal, $220,920 on employee group insurance, $184,599 on maintenance of free public library, and $184,508 on shared service agreements.
Other appropriations are $108,205 for the Office of the Borough Administrator salary and wages, and $100,000 towards legal services and costs.
