Mt. Laurel residents will see a small increase in their municipal tax bill.
Mt. Laurel council unanimously adopted its 2015 budget on second reading at Monday’s meeting. Residents with an average assessed home of $237,518 will have an increase of $14 on their municipal tax bill this year.
The small increase in taxes will allow the township to maintain all services and employees.
The total budget amount is $37.59 million, a decrease of $507,048 from last year. Township manager Maureen Mitchell said the decrease is due to less expected revenue from grants. The township has only budgeted for $127,965 worth of grants, a decrease from the $968,957 it had in 2014.
Mt. Laurel didn’t get any extra help from the state government this year either. The township is receiving $2.83 million in state aid, the same it has received for the past six years.
“Our state aid has remained stagnant since 2010,” Mitchell said.
Mt. Laurel is also using $5.6 million from its fund balance for this year’s budget.
“We’re using the same figure we’ve used in prior years,” Mitchell said.
The $5.6 million of utilized surplus is the same the township used in 2013 and 2014 and is considerably lower than 2008 through 2011, when the township utilized more than $6 million of surplus each year. Mitchell said using the same amount of surplus on an annual basis helps keep the township on solid financial footing.
Because of the lower amount of expected revenue, Mitchell said it was necessary for the township to include a small tax increase to prevent any layoffs. If the township were to keep taxes flat, it would have to cut about $300,000 from its budget. Mitchell said employees likely would have lost jobs in that case.
Also included in the budget are open space and library taxes. The open space tax rate is locked in at 8 percent, meaning residents will pay the same open space tax as in 2014.
Residents will get some slight relief when it comes to library taxes.
“The library tax rate is down slightly this year,” Mitchell said.
Residents with the average assessed home will see a $4 decrease in their library tax bill this year.
Council members praised Mitchell and the financial office for keeping municipal taxes at a reasonable level. Councilman Jim Keenan noted the township could have raised taxes more than $100 on the average assessed home if it chose to go over the cap, but has been able to keep taxes low thanks to shared service initiatives.
Deputy Mayor Dennis Riley thanked residents for supporting the township’s programs and attending township events funded through the budget. The budget pays for free township events such as Taste of Mt. Laurel, Fall Festival, Paws Farm Egg Hunt and others.
Fellowship redevelopment plan back on the agenda
Mt. Laurel council passed a newly revised Fellowship area redevelopment plan on first reading.
The originally revised plan was tabled at council’s last meeting on March 23 after council asked for additional changes to the plan. Some of the latest changes include a revised section on signs, changes to parking regulations and an adjustment to the minimum lot area for part of the property.
Council will hold the second reading and public hearing on the ordinance at its next meeting on April 27.
