WEST ORANGE, NJ — The West Orange Township Council introduced and held a public hearing on the 2020 municipal budget at its Aug. 11 meeting, with plans to vote on the document at its next meeting, on Sept. 8. The total budget, which was presented by Chief Financial Officer John Gross, is $90,676,490. This year’s tax increase will be 1.76 percent.
Personnel costs take up the bulk of the appropriations in the budget at 62 percent. The police and fire department budgets are the largest; police salaries and wages will cost the town $12,478,167, while other police expenses will cost $157,001.78. The fire department’s salaries will cost $10,364,523, and other fire expenses will be $105,032.67. Salaries under the Uniform Fire Safety Act will cost $28,250 and other expenses are listed as costing $29,687. Emergency Management Services will cost a total of $16,245.
At the meeting, Gross talked about the contractual obligations that the township has to employees, which contribute to the reason such a large percentage of the budget goes to personnel. These obligations include current employee medical benefit payments, retiree medical benefit payments and paid time off.
“These are all things that go into personnel costs,” he said. “In 2006, we had 375 full-time employees — now we have 308. That’s a significant difference. However, if you look at our personnel costs, they have continued to rise, and, even with 308 employees, we’re far above where we were when we had 375.”
Personnel costs have risen substantially over the last decade, and steadily since 2014.
The total appropriation costs in the 2020 budget went up by more than $2.5 million from last year. Three of the line items are personnel related: salaries and wages, pension costs, and health benefits. Salaries and wages rose by $900,000, pension costs went up by $70,000, and health benefits rose by $1.3 million.
From 2019, salt and snow removal costs rose by $130,000, jitney services will cost an extra $60,000 this year, and the West Orange Public Library will get an additional $110,000.
The Recreation Department’s budget is a total of $1,000,461. The Department of Health and Welfare, which includes the senior citizen transportation program, the senior citizen health center, animal control, and garbage and trash removal, has a total budget of $5,183,231.99.
Gross highlighted the sources of revenue in the budget — 68 percent will come from taxes. State aid will provide $4.7 million, and delinquent taxes will give the town $2.6 million. Grants will provide $3.7 million in revenue.
Other revenue sources for West Orange include the hotel tax, which will bring in $515,311; cell towers, which will make $153,255; and the recycling center, which will make $86,666. Of the four “creative revenue sources” that Gross talked about at the meeting, ambulance billing will make the most at $1,243,242.
Hiring more municipal employees is included in the budget, including filling 10 open police officer positions. A full-time senior citizen bus driver will be hired, as well as a full-time health inspector and an economic development consultant. The library will receive additional funding. Anti-bias training, and justice and mental health collaboration training, will be provided for employees. Both the senior citizen services and traffic safety programs will be expanded, in addition to giving support to programming at the Oskar Schindler Performing Arts Center.
“We’re receiving a funding grant from CARES for COVID-related cost,” Gross said. “Right now we’ve probably spent a little bit north of a million dollars; fortunately we have a $2.3 million grant to offset that. We’re able to do what we need to do during this terrible period to make sure our employees that have to come in and be with one another are in the safest environment possible, as well as other concerns and considerations for COVID expenses.”
When talking about taxes, Gross pointed out that since the inception of the 2-percent tax cap, West Orange has gone over that limit only once. With the 1.76-percent increase this year, the township will stay under the cap.
In the first draft of the budget, the projected tax increase had been 2 percent; Councilman Joe Krakoviak asked at the meeting about the origins of the updated number. Gross said that the council had made cuts in the budget totaling about $150,000.
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