Mt. Laurel Township Council approved its amended 2020 municipal budget during a virtual meeting on April 27.
The session began on a somber note, as Mayor Irwin Edelson cited the death of 75-year-old Dr. Fred Van Istendal on April 20.
“Fred is a great Mt. Laurel man we lost a few days ago,” the mayor said. “Fred and I served, along with [Township Solicitor] George Morris, on the Mt. Laurel MUA. He was … very active in the Rotary, a dentist and one of my mentors. So let’s remember Fred in our moment of silence.”
Municipal Clerk/Registrar Meredith Tomczyk then presented a budget different from the one previously introduced. The amended version accounted for Emergency Management Service’s (EMS’) increased budgetary needs in the face of the ongoing pandemic and still reflected no increase in taxes.
“The only change that was done to the amended budget was adding money to the EMS line item due to COVID-19,” Tomczyk explained. “The money that’s being added into there, I offset with surplus to keep the tax increase at zero percent for Mt. Laurel residents.”
Edelson called the lack of a tax increase “pretty amazing, in the time we’re in.”
The presentation can be found here, starting on page 5.
The budget’s key takeaways follow:
* After a drop in 2019’s reported numbers, an uptick in commercial activity like the opening of Topgolf increased the township’s net valuation taxable from $2,772,418,290 to $2,790,320,291
* The local tax rate for 2020 will remain $0.352 (reflecting a budget levy of $20,381,937.42) and the library tax rate will see a slight increase to $0.037 from $0.036, or a levy of $2,124,475.55
* For the average homeowner whose home has the assessed value of $237,500 and is paying $6,999.13 in annual taxes, the breakdown is: 3 percent ($190) for open space, 14 percent ($976.12) to the county, 39 percent ($2,733.63) to local schools, 1 percent ($87.87) to the library, 25 percent ($1,745.63) to regional school taxes, 6 percent ($429,88) to the fire district and 12 percent ($836) to municipal taxes. (At the time of the meeting, the regional school, local school and county taxes were all anticipated and not final numbers)
* The budget utilizes 35.02 percent of the township’s prior-year surplus, a “pretty conservative” number Tomczyk explained as being so because “I can guarantee you, next year we’re going to need a large percent of that surplus to bail us out from what’s happening right now with COVID-19.”
Township council approved the amended budget, and then authorized the adoption of the 2020 Mt. Laurel municipal budget.
Resolution 20-R-84 also passed, formalizing the regular township council meetings’ use of the videoconferencing app Zoom because of the pandemic. The affected meeting dates extend through June, as Tomczyk reported current shelter-at-home mandates suggest meetings won’t be held in person until at least July.
Morris said that the township put out the RFP for Paws Farm right before Easter and, despite “several groups interested earlier in the year … we don’t have anyone picking up packages to potentially submit for the Sept. 1 deadline.”
Council member Kurt Folcher praised the ease with which the township comes together to accomplish its goals and explained how proactive municipal leaders have been communicating among themselves.
“One of the reasons why things seem to be moving so seamlessly in this town is that everybody’s on the same team,” he said. “We don’t have conflicts of inner-office biases, and it’s due to the fact that Meredith (Tomczyk) has these folks doing a weekly Zoom meeting. It goes a long way for the professionalism of our town, the way it’s managed and the way our department heads look at Mt. Laurel as an entity that they have a lot of respect for, that they want to see move forward and that they put a lot of time and sweat into.”
Folcher added that the township’s website, mountlaurel.com, will direct residents and entrepreneurs to more information about the $10,000 nonrefundable grants available as Small Business Association loans. Folcher also reminded Mt. Laurel’s business owners that the Economic Development tab on the township’s website includes contact information for Director of Economic and Community Development Bill Giegerich, who was hired specifically to help ensure the success of commercial operations.
The next township council meeting will be held remotely May 18. Zoom login information can be requested by emailing Tomczyk at [email protected] once the meeting’s public notice has been issued.
