The March 23 Voorhees Township Committee meeting saw the public hearing and adoption of the township’s 2015 municipal budget.
The municipal tax levy will remain flat, with municipal taxes remaining at 58 cents per $100 of assessed property value.
For the average assessed home in Voorhees valued at $255,500, that equates to a $124 a month municipal tax bill, or about $1,500 annually.
Total appropriations in the budget are set at $27.91 million, which is only a minor increase from the $27.82 million set in the budget last year. Of the $27.91 million, taxation will make up about $18.72 million, nearly identical to the $18.71 million that was raised by taxation in the 2014 budget.
Voorhees Township Administrator Larry Spellman said the township was able to keep taxes flat because of a culmination of actions taken by the township over several years. Those actions include township employees contributing more to their health-care benefit costs, overall reductions in the number of people employed by the township and the township’s overall tax collection rate increasing.
“We’re really happy to be able to have a budget with no tax increases,” Spellman said. “It’s really a culmination of many years of work and planning. We’re always looking five years ahead, and the next couple of years look promising as well as far as our budget.”
Spellman and other township officials have also noted the property revaluation from several years ago as another reason taxes were able to remain flat in the 2015 budget, as tax appeals used to cost the township anywhere from $1 million to $1.5 million annually.
In other news:
• Committee passed two resolutions authorizing a request for proposals for a planning consultant for affordable housing matters in the township and authorizing special counsel on affordable housing matters to file declaratory judgment action.
The state Supreme Court recently ruled the New Jersey Council on Affordable Housing’s administrative processes were not working as the council failed to adopt third round regulations for more than 15 years and was not providing regulations to guide municipalities in complying with their constitutional obligation to provide for affordable housing.
As such, the court put in place a process for which municipalities could have their affordable housing plans deemed constitutionally compliant by the court through declaratory judgment actions sought by municipalities.
• Committee approved a shared services agreement between Voorhees Township and the Borough of Laurel Springs for uniform construction code services by which Voorhees will reduce costs by working together to provide a construction official and subcode services for Laurel Springs.
• The township presented a proclamation to officially recognize “Earth Hour,” which this year took place on March 28.
The annual event, organized by the World Wide Fund for Nature, takes place on the last Saturday of March every year and encourages households, businesses and communities to turn off non-essential lights for one hour from 8:30–9:30 p.m.
According to the proclamation, the Township Committee is “honored to be a part of the change in the community,” and it encouraged all citizens in Voorhees to join and participate in the event to help save energy and reduce and carbon dioxide.
• The next meeting of the Voorhees Township Committee is scheduled for April 13.
