Special Budget Meeting
Meeting tonight at Municipal Hall is in advance of a public budget hearing next week.
Commissioner Jeff Kasko, the borough director of financing, will hold a special public meeting at 7:30 p.m. tonight at the Municipal Hall to discuss Haddonfield's proposed $15.23 million budget.
This meeting is in addition to a public budget hearing next Tuesday in which a vote is scheduled. The meeting tonight is not an official commissioner's meeting and no vote on the budget will be held.
Borough commissioners introduced a budget last month that will increase the local tax rate by just over 6 percent.
The increase will boost the average amount paid for local services by taxpayers to $2,304 yearly. That's a $134 hike for the owner of a home assessed at $491,359, the borough average.
The tax hike is largely fueled by a nearly $500,000 increase in the reserve for uncollected taxes. The reserve is a state requirement. The increase will still keep Haddonfield under a state-mandated 2-percent cap on increases on the amount raised by taxes, or the tax levy. The projected levy will be $10,576,000, up from $9,992,651.
Kasko said debt service, capital improvements, increases in medical costs for employees and a decrease in ratables, the value of real estate in Haddonfield, also contributed to the tax hike.
Two other commissioners earlier this month said the rising amount of uncollected taxes appears to be a sign of the times.
Jack S
5:37 pm on Thursday, April 19, 2012
The Borough claims it must raise the local tax by 6% because it is short of funds, yet the School Board proposes at the same time to lay out as much as $15 million in taxpayer money to acquire the Bancroft property for athletic fields (plus many millions more for related debt service, redevelopment costs, upkeep, etc.). What gives? Local residents must not allow the Borough to cry poor on the one hand, while the School District seeks to divert taxpayer money to unfunded purchases having only theoretical benefits for students and other residents. Sure, it would be peachy for the Borough to own the Bancroft parcel, just as I would love to acquire my next-door neighbor's vacant lot and keep it as open space -- but the bucks simply aren't there. If School Board Members are allowed to spend taxpayer dollars that Haddonfield clearly doesn't have, they will follow in the footsteps of Camden, Collingswood, Medford, and others municipalities that are drowning in debt. I generally support those who would like to keep "high density housing" off the Bancroft lot, but we cannot allow local officials to turn 'Bancroft' into 'Bankrupt.' Can't we learn anything from Collingwood's Lumberyard?
Jeff H
6:05 pm on Thursday, April 19, 2012
WE WOULD HAVE a good deal more capital to spend on these types of infrastructure projects if we sold our water utility, stop all of the consultant studies, and completely outsourced our Public Works, including the six figure superintendent positions. That would be a big start!