According to Monroe Township Mayor Rich DiLucia, there hasn’t been a raise in municipal taxes in the last two years. In his first term as mayor, he is looking to keep that trend.
“We’re in the process right now, working with the CFO and [business administrator] Jill McCrea in trying to do it again,” DiLucia said at the latest council meeting. “I can tell you it’s a very difficult task, one of the reasons is we have incurred substantial increase in some budget lines.”
One of the examples DiLucia gave was the cost to remove trash, which went up $25,000 per month, an additional $300,000 per year.
The next step is to have the budget committee review the municipal budget and make adjustments if necessary.
“I’m confident we will be at zero or darn close to it,” DiLucia said.
In keeping with the spirit of taxes, DiLucia spoke on other goals council has made in terms of transparency.
“One of the things, I know everybody wants to report on things they accomplished, but I said we’re going to have a transparent government. This council and myself will tell you the truth – one of the things we were unable to do was the tax card,” he said.
A tax card is a way for residents to be reimbursed for shopping in town. A resident would show the tax card at a store in town and a percentage of their purchases would be reimbursed to them through a check quarterly as a tax rebate.
While DiLucia admitted he and the council thought it was a good idea in the beginning to invest in a tax card, the more research they completed the more they realized it would be in the township’s best interest to not pursue it any further.
“The more we got into it the more we realized the company that was running this tax card really wasn’t good at what they did. Their equipment was antiquated, made it very difficult for the business community to accept the program,” DiLucia said. “In other towns close by like Washington Township and Glassboro, who have adopted the program, very unsuccessful. Participation was very low, return on investment was negative. It would have cost more money to do it than it would have achieved.”
While council has decided not to pursue the tax card right now, they haven’t ruled out the possibility of revisiting it in the future.
In other news:
- DiLucia appointed Christina Unipan to alternate member No. 1 of the Environmental Protection Commission. Her term expires on Dec. 31.
- The Cecil Fire Department swore in five officers. James Solomon was sworn in as chief, Bruce Chandler as assistant chief, Robert Clark as captain, Andre Leary as lieutenant and John VanLeer Jr. As lieutenant. Each of the five positions are two-year terms.
- In the work session, council President Ron Garbowski spoke about the possibility of a dirt bike and ATV training facility coming to town. A developer and professional dirt bike rider pitched the idea to the Garbowski and council Vice President Joe Marino.
“When we met we thought it was a good idea, it’s a place where you can take your kids to get safely trained for ATVs and dirtbikes. Right now, they plan on going to the Pinelands for approval, then they will be coming back to the town.” Garbowski said.
“If you were to buy a dirt bike from Deptford Honda the training is included in the purchase, but there’s not a lot of places that you can go to get this training. Deptford Honda or the manufacturer would pay him.”
The facility will also offer trails for people to ride in a friendly, uncompetitive atmosphere.
- In the work session, council approved a pilot program for backyard chickens. The pilot, which is a two-year program that will allow for residents to keep backyard hens, will go to the ordinance meeting to have the details worked out.
- The next council meeting is scheduled for April 8. The work session will start at 7 p.m. at the municipal building with the regular meeting scheduled for 8 p.m. Both sessions are open to the public.
