New Budget Provides $175 Tax Break

The Borough Council tonight passed a 2010 budget that will give homeowners tax relief, cut spending, and result in a smaller Borough workforce. Under the measure, the average homeowner will pay $175 less in taxes in 2010 than in 2009.

The tax reduction represents the first significant tax cut in recent memory according to Council President Matt Anesh. “Since I purchased my home I’ve never seen any significant tax relief. This is the first time.

“We made some hard decisions,” said Anesh in discussing the new budget. “In this economy, everyone has to trim costs.”

“We worked hard to cut spending yet keep services intact,” said Ray Rusnak, head of the Council’s finance committee. “Taxpayers will see the results in their tax bills. The average taxpayer will see a $175 decrease, but the best way for people to see what they saved is to compare their bills from 2009 to 2010.”

Councilman Tim McConville was pleased with the result: “It felt good to vote for a budget that lowered taxes.”

In addition to cutting taxes, the budget also streamlines borough government.

“We’ll have about a dozen fewer employees this year than last,” Anesh explained. “The result is a smaller, more efficient Borough workforce.”

But despite fewer employees, the Borough has not resorted to significant layoffs.

“We did it through attrition and reorganization,” said Rusnak. “We cut positions, not people.”
In addition to fulfilling a promise to taxpayers, the cost cutting was also required by an approximate $600,000 loss of state aid. “We had to make that amount up without raising taxes,” said Anesh.

Anesh and Rusnak also pointed to two other measures that helped bring down costs: refinancing the Borough’s debt and bidding out its recycling programs.

The Borough will save $135,000 over three years on its recycling programs, which include curbside collection and the Kenneth Avenue Recycling Center.

In addition, because the Borough’s bond rating improved this year, the cost for borrowing dropped, which along with lower interest rates prompted the refinancing. The town will now be paying less than one percent interest. Refinancing the Borough’s debt saved over $200,000.

While Anesh and Rusnak are excited about bringing taxes down this year, they are even more excited for 2011.

“Many of the cost-cutting measures we put in place this year won’t see their full effect until 2011,” said Rusnak.

“The Council’s cost cutting, along with some of Governor Christie’s proposals coming out of Trenton, put us in a good place to keep taxes under control next year too,” added Anesh.

The Borough budget isn’t the only place the Council has been cutting though. Back in May it trimmed $1.2 million from the school budget after voters defeated it at the polls.

“We were able to bring the school tax down from a $100 increase to flat,” Rusnak explained. “That was without cutting any additional positions or programs. In fact, we suggested ways the board could bring back staff and programs that were originally cut, which is what’s happening now.

The result of all this is that taxpayers will be paying significantly less this year than they did in 2009. While the county taxes increased by about $25 a household, this is offset by flat school taxes and the $175 municipal savings.

“I’m sure families, and especially our seniors, will be happy to pay less,” said McConville.

(Reader Submitted)