Politics & Government

Budget Will Increase Taxes by $438.29 on Average Home

Total increase of tax levy is 4.2 percent for 2010; Police department has filed for arbitration.

After already reducing the defeated school budget and closing a $1.8 million gap in its own budget, the Borough Council finally introduced its 2010 municipal budget on Monday at Bayley-Ellard.

The property tax increase on the average home in Madison, assessed at $409,500, is $438.29. Borough Administrator Ray Codey called that home "mythical," as market value tends to be a great deal higher than that assessed value. The market value of the average house in Madison is $720,950.

The overall estimated tax levy for the 2010 municipal budget is $55,425,358. As is every year, the largest percentage of that amount comes from school taxes, which makes up 61.2 percent of the levy. Municipal and open space taxes account for 23.8 percent and county and open space taxes make up 15 percent.

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The process has taken longer than usual this year, with the hearing to come almost three months after the final work session was held on April 1.

"Due to the unusual circumstances, driven by a sea of change in Trenton, the public hearing of the Borough budget will be held later than usual, with 50% of FY2010 already expired, on Monday, June 28, 2010," Mayor Mary-Anna Holden wrote in a letter to residents at the beginning of the council's "Budget in Brief" packet.

Find out what's happening in Madisonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The "sea of changes" included a $227,383 reduction in state aid handed down on March 18. Municipal budgeting has also coincided with having to go through a defeated school budget process for about a month.

"This process actually started in July of last year," Codey said of the municipal budget. "So it's kind of hard to talk about 2010 when you are late in May and you started the process last July, but that's where we are."

Chief Financial Officer Robert Kalafut gave about a 10 minute overview presentation of the budget.

Codey said the budget contains a zero percent raise for all municipal employees, and he once again thanked the fire department for agreeing to a two-year freeze, allowing for more flexibility in what is expected to be an even more challenging budget year in 2011.

"This plan maintains all essential services to residents," Codey said. "It doesn't require forced layoffs or mandatory furlough days."

However, not all work groups have taken a wage freeze, and the police department has arbitration rights that they appear to be exercising.

On May 18, attorney Donald B. Ross, Jr., on behalf of the PBA of Madison Local 92, filed a petition to initiate compulsory interest arbitration. If the department does not waive its right before arbitration begins, the procedure will continue with both sides paying legal fees through the process.

Salary was one of nine issues listed as in dispute in arbitration documents.

Codey has already said that if a department went to arbitration and won, the budget amount handed to those departments would still be what is listed in what is now the introduced budget. This means that the department would be responsible for taking that budget amount and applying it as it saw fit, which would include reductions and possibly layoffs in order to get to that number.

Auditor Dave Evans, who works for Nisivoccia & Company, praised the overall municipal budget work of the borough at the end of the budget presentation.

"We represent about 65 towns," Evans said. "Many, many of those towns are struggling with the same issues that Madison is struggling with, and quite frankly are not dealing with them as well as you guys are."


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