By ROBERT LINNEHAN | The Haddonfield Sun
Borough taxpayers can expect their municipal tax bills to increase this year.
Borough commissioners approved the 2010 budget on first reading last week. The document includes a near 3-cent increase to the local tax rate.
Commissioner Jeff Kasko explained that spending was being held in check at the municipal level — this year’s budget was only half a percent higher than 2009’s — but the state’s decision to cut municipal aid and increase mandated costs forced the tax rate increase. The $13.9 million budget — minus grant expenditures — increased by $80,000 over the 2009 budget.
The tax rate was bumped up to 42.39 cents per every $100 of assessed property value, an increase of 2.9 cents from 2009. The average assessed home in the borough of $491,359 will see an increase of about $156 from the 2009 tax bill. The tax bill for the average assessed home is about $2,083.
“This is not a happy situation for us to be passing a budget with a tax increase,” Kasko said.
Commissioner Ed Borden revealed his frustration with the budget and the state. Anytime the state decreases aid to its municipalities, the local taxpayers see their bills increase, he said. State aid was cut by more than $278,000 — a decrease of almost 22 percent from 2009.
Commissioners cut all of the costs they could control, Borden said, decreasing the daily operating expenses in the borough by about 2 percent. The police department is not filling a position as well, he said, and its budget is being reduced by $288,000 this year. The officers also accepted a wage freeze.
Because of the reduction, the DARE program and the school resource officer will no longer be present at Haddonfield Memorial High School.
The Department of Public Works was also reduced by $120,000.
The only department in the borough that was increased from last year was Revenue and Finance, Borden said, but that was because of increases from the state that the commissioners cannot control.
“This tax increase is a result of two things. First and foremost is the reduction in state aid,” Borden said.
The second is the increase of mandated state costs and the decrease of revenue coming into the borough.
The state is simply shifting the tax burden from itself to the municipalities, he said.
A public hearing will be held for the budget at the commissioner meeting on Tuesday, July 27. A meeting is also set with the public on Thursday, July 22, to go over any questions the public may have about the document before its adoption.
