BLOOMFIELD, NJ — Bloomfield residents will be paying $15.96 more a year on the average-assessed home of $270,700, according to Township Administrator Matthew Watkins. Watkins spoke at the Township Council meeting Monday evening when the preliminary budget resolution was approved.
He said the budget “represents another lean year while taking into account the policies of the mayor and council.” The entire budget, which will be given a PowerPoint presentation April 3, is $80 million.
Watkins said that $5.5 million of surplus was used in the budget, leaving more than $6 million. Revenues “slipped a little,” he said, attributing this to a decrease in construction code and court fines.
He said there was also “a little less” cap surplus that could be used because it had been used last year for debt service. Watkins spoke about one expense in particular.
“Everyone knows we are making improvements to the water system,” he said. “It is needed. We are well behind the eight ball with this.”
He commended Township Engineer Paul Lasek for his effort to improve the water system.
After the meeting, Mayor Michael Venezia called it “a very good budget” with only a slight overall increase for taxpayers. “We’re still able to do everything at the same level,” he said.
The biggest increase in the budget is in debt service
payments, according to Venezia. He said this is about $1 million.
“We felt we didn’t want to kick the can down the road any longer,” he said.
Venezia said debt payments have increased slightly and garbage collection is $500,000 more than charged by the previous vendor. He said there will be no increase in police and fire department personnel with the police having 125 officers and the fire department having 78 firefighters. Venezia said there will be a 6 percent drop in the cost of operations.
Watkins had attributed this decrease to the hard work of Bloomfield municipal employees.
The 2017 tax increase, the mayor said, is only .25 percent over the 2016 budget. A public hearing and a final vote on the budget are scheduled for the April 24 council meeting.
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