HOWELL – The Township Council is looking to meet the state deadline to adopt its $53.54 million municipal budget.
The township’s proposed $53.54 million budget includes $24 million in salaries.
This year’s spending plan calls for residential and commercial property owners in the township to pay a total of $809,264 more in municipal taxes. The spending plan will be supported by the collection of $29.2 million in taxes from Howell’s residential and commercial property owners. Municipal officials said $900,000 from the township’s surplus fund (savings) would be used as revenue in the budget.
Last year’s municipal budget totaled $52.3 million and was supported by the collection of $28.39 million in taxes from residential and commercial property owners. That budget used $1.2 million from the surplus fund as revenue.
This year, the municipal tax rate is projected to remain 39.45 cents per $100 of assessed valuation. The average home in Howell is now assessed at $365,623 and the owner of that home will pay about $1,442 in municipal taxes.
Mayor Theresa Berger, Deputy Mayor Evelyn O’Donnell, Councilman John Bonevich and Councilman Thomas Russo addressed the financial impact that the COVID-19 pandemic has had the township.
Deputy Mayor O’Donnell called for a list of township projects to review and to rank in order of priority “so we can be a little proactive, and have a peek, and have a discussion.”
Township Manager Brian Geoghegan said, “I’ve already stopped all non-essential spending and we are not filling any full-time positions or doing any hiring at this point even for vacancies or approved positions. We’ve put that all on hold for now.”
Councilman Bonevich thanked Gov. Phil Murphy for postponing municipal budgets which now can be adopted a month later. “These are uncharted waters as we all know.”
Bonevich noted that the bill the governor signed did not signify a date in which the budget had to be adopted but only to postpone it. “When does our financial year start and end? Is there an absolute deadline without this extension? I read somewhere about Aug. 10…I know the state’s (budget) is now Sept. 30.”
The township’s fiscal year runs from Jan. 1 to Dec. 30. The original deadline of the local government services division had an adoption deadline of April 30 or the next meeting thereafter. That has now been pushed to May 30 or the next council meeting after that. The state’s fiscal year ends on June 30.
The governing body’s staff will attempt to get tax bills out by the Aug. 30 deadline but it was noted that this could be a “trying task.”
Councilwoman Richmond reminded the public to fill out and return their 2020 census forms and noted a program where children would write letters to seniors who may be lonely would appreciate contact.
