Morris Twp. Passes Budget With Slight Increase

The Morris Township committee approved its 2013 budget with a small increase that averages out to less than $4 per month for a resident with a home assessed at $400,000. The overall budget increase is 1.9 percent, which is a .55 percent tax levy increase.

The .55 percent puts the township well below the 2 percent tax levy cap. The budget came in $1.75 million under the cap. Budget discussions began in October last year.

“Our operating expenses are coming in at a flat rate, a zero percent decrease,” said Timothy Quinn, Township Administrator, who gave the budget presentation on Wednesday. “We also took into consideration our five collective bargaining agreements and we worked through capitol projects and prioritized them. We worked with our auditor to come up with a fiscally responsible budget for this year but also prepare us for stability for future years.

The anticipated revenue of 2013 is $82,000 higher than last year. The budget presentation is attached to this Patch article as well.

“On the appropriations side, our biggest is salary and wages. All of our employees this year saw about a 2 percent increase. That’s what was awarded in the collective bargaining agreements for the township employees,” said Quinn.

“I think it’s fiscally responsible for us to increase the tax rate by $4 per month for 8,500-8,800 homes because that will probably give us $400,000-500,000 more for our fund balance to prepare for spikes like we had back in ’09, ’10 and ’11 and we’ll have the dollars to pay for what we need to pay.”

Here are some key points that were touched upon:

2013 priorities

• Fiscally responsible
• Maintain/increase services
• Maintain head count—“One of the things we did was cross train our employees so they could share the responsibilities between departments to get our needs done.”
• Strengthen and maintain infrastructure—“We have a major sewer improvement project (that is mandated) that has to be done and we’re in the process of the overlay of the roads, the reconstruction of the roads and maintaining the buildings here in the township … to keep them viable for now and in the future.”

Budget challenges

• Decrease in ratables—Close the $49 million reduction this year, “which is about $285,000-290,000 in municipal tax revenue.”
• Tax revenue
• Health and insurance costs
• Tax appeals—We’ve been preparing for (this) and putting money away … last year we resolved a number of commercial tax appeals worth almost $4.9 million. That resulted in a 5-year pay out to settle those tax appeals. That’s $558,000 for each year for five years … to resolve that”
• Tax appeal loan payment

Commercial assessed property values

“This is where we took the biggest hit. We’re down $40 million on commercial property values again this year. Back in 2007, we were at $790 million and we’re down to $640 million now and we have a few tax appeals pending from last year and this year (that total about $3 million). We’re going to try do the do best we can for the township.”

“The good news in that area is that as of April 1, we did not have any (new) commercial tax appeals,” said Mayor Peter Mancuso, adding that it’s only been individual home owners that have come in so “it makes the future look brighter.”

Other variables

• State mandates
• Low interest rates on cash reserves
• Increase in building permits and revenue
• Union labor contracts—“This is the last year of collective bargaining agreements for the two police unions, fire and DPW. We’ll begin contract negotiations for those units this fall.”
• Capital projects—“We look at what we absolutely need, ensuring that we do not increase any debt. Last year we had to put out a considerable amount of money to the sewer utility (due to a state mandate to remove nitrates) … the project will begin in June and we’ll have it in place by Jan. 1, 2015 deadline.”

Key savings

• 47,000 reduction in operating expenses/salary
• $229,000 reduction in pension payments
• $110,000 in unemployment compensation
• Library costs are now a separate tax similar to school, county and open space—“Our contribution to the library will be about $59,000 less than what it was last year.”

Debt

The municipal debt at the end of 2012 was $35.9 million.

“Last year we had to appropriate over $6 million (to meet a mandated requirement of removing the nitrates from the sewer plant).  Without that you would have seen the debt going down,” said Quinn.

Daniel Caffrey clarified that this is not an additional debt service each year. “It’s an ongoing debt service overall that we’ve been maintaining.”

One resident asked what the interest rate on the debt, which Quinn said was between 2 and 2.5 percent. The principal is paid once a year and the interest is paid twice a year.