UPDATE: Budget Passes With 3.48% Tax Increase

The Madison Borough Council on Monday night adopted a resolution approving an amended 2011 municipal budget that includes a tax hike of 3.48 percent from the prior-year budget.

The resolution amends a budget presented to the council by borough chief financial officer Robert Kalafut on March 14. The spending plan will be formally adopted and sent on to the state at the next scheduled council meeting April 25.

The amended budget sets total spending at $24,451,901 million, up from $24,438,695 in the March 14 budget. Taxes total $11,976,513, revised downward from $13,178,688. The amendment breaks out a separate listing for the library tax levy as required by the state of $1,197,291 which was previously included in the total tax levy, which has increased 3.48 percent on-year.

While state rules cap annual municipal tax levy increases at 2 percent, there are cap exceptions for debt payments as well as for mandated items such as pensions.

The budget vote at Hartley Dodge Memorial ended in a 3-3 tie as council members Jeannie Tsukamoto, Don Links and Robert Catalanello opposed the tax hike. Mayor Mary-Anna Holden broke the tie, approving the changes.

Asked to explain their votes after the meeting, Tsukamoto said that asking borough residents to shoulder a 3.51 percent tax increase was “unreasonable."

"There are people out of jobs and a long list of foreclosures in town," she said. "We need to do what we can to reduce expenses but we have not accomplished that.”

“[The borough] is not a corporation, but maybe we need to treat it more like a corporation,” Links said. “We need to treat it like a business and have some accountability.”

Said Catalanello, “I don’t see how we can afford some of the services that we offer. When I was elected I promised to keep taxes in check, and we can’t keep going down this path.”