Township amends, adopts 2009 budget

ABERDEEN — The Township Council amended and adopted a $14.75 million municipal budget for 2009 that will raise annual taxes for the average home by $52, at its Sept. 15 meeting.

The amended budget calls for a municipal tax rate increase of 1.86 cents over the township's 2008 spending plan. Taxpayers will see their taxes increase from 37.4 cents per $100 of assessed property value in 2008 to 39.3 cents in 2009, according to Township Manager Joseph Criscuolo.

Mayor David Sobel described the adopted budget as "responsible" and "austere" at the council meeting.

"Faced with lost state aid, contractual obligations, rising health care costs, we went through the budget process ad nauseam this year," Sobel said on Sept. 15. "Bad times force us to look inward to come up with solutions within the township. There were no furloughs, no office closings, no wage freezes, no staff reductions, and there was no loss of service. We were also able to maintain the support of our recreational leagues, our parks and our senior citizens in terms of standard programs. We did a lot of in-house servicing."

The councils of both Matawan and Aberdeen asked the Matawan-Aberdeen Public Library to return unused funds to help offset tax increases to fund the 2009 municipal operating budgets.

"In an effort to limit the size of the tax increase, the mayor, council and administration worked diligently with the Matawan- Aberdeen Public Library and with the borough of Matawan to obtain a reimbursement of surplus funds, ultimately delivering about $184,000 in funds to the municipality," Criscuolo said in a press statement.

"Additionally, we worked to attain savings in virtually every department through staff reductions via attrition and other costcutting measures."

Under the 2009 budget, the owner of the average home in Aberdeen assessed at $280,000 will see municipal taxes increase $52 per year to $1,100.

The budget calls for a tax levy of $8,206,029, according to township Chief Financial Officer Angela Morin.

"The revenue from the library was corrected to the exact amount of $184,402," Morin said. "The appropriations to the library were corrected from $704,000 to $740,000."

The 2009 budget is $577,000, or 3.8 percent, below the $15.33 million allocated in 2008. Due to anticipated reductions in revenue, the budget is supported by a tax levy of $8.21 million, up from $7.82 million in 2008. The revenues and the appropriations on the water and utility budget were equally decreased by $4,000, according to Morin.

"Subsequent to all these changes because of the calculations of the levy cap, the levy cap waiver was changed from $490,631 to $519,639," she said.

Sobel also mentioned that in last year's fourth quarter, Aberdeen was forced to pass emergency appropriations totaling $220,000 for health insurance. To help get employee health care insurance expenses under control, the township joined the Central Jersey Health Insurance Fund. Savings are expected to be realized beginning in the first quarter of 2010.

The fund consists of 18 towns, including Shrewsbury, Red Bank, Eatontown, Atlantic Highlands and Interlaken.

"It was great we were able to transition to a health insurance fund that is populated by a growing number of municipalities throughout Central Jersey," Sobel said. "In fact, I believe there are school districts that are interested in joining the same fund. We try not to raise taxes, and when you do, we try to minimize the increase in the taxes."

Tom Aljian, Republican candidate for mayor, criticized the budget as "a recipe for future property tax increases.

"This $400,000 increase in taxation is after the pension deferral and library funds were used as trick budget gimmicks to smooth the budget," Aljian said. "In short, the council decided not to pay some $450,000 into the state pension fund this year and simply put the payment off to some future date plus interest. Further, the council decided to use $188,000 in funds from the library it says were overpaid, to further help beef up the budget numbers. As such, we move into 2010 in the hole by $650,000."

Sobel will not be running for re-election in November.