MAPLEWOOD, NJ — Maplewood taxpayers are looking at a 4-percent increase in property taxes this year, according to the budget introduced at the Maplewood Township Committee’s May 5 meeting. The committee unanimously approved the introduction of the budget, which comes in at $48,199,831.37. These numbers could change between now and the June 16 public hearing.
“Between now and then there may be changes based on the ramifications of the coronavirus and how it has hit our revenue stream and even our expenses,” Committeeman Victor DeLuca, who chairs the Finance Committee, said at the meeting. “We are introducing a budget of $48.2M. That’s about a 3.5-percent increase over our budget from 2019. The tax increase is 4 percent.
“We did the best we could in cutting down on expenses,” he continued. “The average house is assessed at $500,000 and the increase for the average house for the local portion of the taxes will be about $165, or $14 a month. So that’s an average home. You can do your 4 percent. But if you’re hearing this and you’re thinking about your 4-percent (tax) increase, it isn’t your total taxes, it’s just the portion that goes to the municipality, which is about 25 percent.”
According to DeLuca, some of the main drivers are capital improvements and coronavirus response, as well as salary negotiations and insurance.
“We have a significant increase of over $200,000 for capital improvement fund, because we’re undertaking a fairly robust program of infrastructure repairs. We have a fairly difficult time keeping up with our roads, our sewers, our public buildings. We made a decision this year to really stop kicking the can down the road and start doing those repairs, so that has increased our budget by about $200,000. We have already spent over $100,000 just responding to COVID-19,” he said. “Hopefully we’ll get reimbursed by FEMA, but that reimbursement could be a couple of years down the road.”
Of the 2020 appropriations, 20 percent will go to police and dispatch; 11 percent to fire and Office of Emergency Management; 8 percent to the Department of Public Works and recycling; 4 percent to community services; 4 percent to the library; 5 percent to general administration, finance, IT and HR; 1 percent to jitney; 3 percent to the sewer authority; 14 percent to debt payments, principal and interest; 10 percent to pensions; 7 percent to health benefits; 3 percent to the uncollected taxes reserve; and 9 percent to other expenses.
“We’re in the service business, so when you say cut here and cut here, and we’re going to have to think about that going forward, we’re talking about having to cut our public safety — that’s where the money is. A lot of these other pieces of the pie are statutory; we don’t have a choice for pension, or health benefits, or even debt payments, or even sewer authority,” DeLuca said.
As for 2020 revenue, the lion’s share comes from local property taxes, at 67 percent. After that, 21 percent will come from local sources, such as fees from jitney, parking, recreation, sewer, construction, planning and zoning, Board of Health, public works, emergency and medical services; licenses; Payments in Lieu of Taxes; court fines and costs; and rental of municipal properties. The rest comes from surplus, state aid, delinquent taxes and library property taxes.
According to DeLuca, the 21 percent from local revenue is now the “scary part.”
“We’re talking over $10 million here from our sources of local revenue,” he said. “All of these fees are taking an enormous hit right now, as everything is closed, people are not going into New York City, construction has stopped, and of course recreation, we’re not running any activities right now.”
While the township is still expecting license fees and PILOTs as usual, there are no court fines due to the courts being closed, and Maplewood-owned venues, such as the Burgdorff and The Woodland, cannot be rented out.
DeLuca stressed the importance of residents filling out the census, as the township is hoping to receive assistance from Congress, which will base funding on the population count.
“A lot of work has been put into this budget. It was basically in a great position, and then COVID-19 hit and we nearly started over again,” Mayor Frank McGehee said. “We will continue to monitor the situation.”
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