T.F. votes to cut open space tax rate

T.F. votes to cut open space tax rate
Controversial measure will save residents $25 per yr.
BY KENNY WALTER Staff Writer

TINTON FALLS — After months of debate and different procedural maneuvers, Tinton Falls residents will finally get their open space tax rate cut.

The Borough Council adopted an ordinance cutting the rate at its Jan. 19 meeting with a 3-2 vote. The vote was in accordance with the Nov. 3 referendum in which nearly 60 percent of voters favored a reduction in the open space tax rate from 3 cents per $100 of assessed valuation to 2.25 cents.

Council President Duane Morrill and Councilman Andrew Mayer voted against the ordinance.

Morrill has opposed cutting the tax since August and in an interview last week said he never considered voting to cut the tax.

“I was against it from the beginning,” he said. “Just because I’m going to lose the battle doesn’t mean I’m going to change my vote.

“I just voted my conscience,” he added. “There was never a thought in my mind to switch the other way.”

Morrill acknowledged that the council’s vote reflects the results of the referendum.

“The town voted 60-40, and that’s the way the council voted as well,” he said. “There are two of us against lowering it and three of us that are for it.”

Morrill also explained that he felt in the long run this would end up hurting residents of Tinton Falls.

“Our financial guy [Director of Finance Stephen Pfeffer] has stated time and time again that the purchase of open space is going to save the town money in the long run because the cost of services are so much more that we have to provide from each house that comes into town,” he said. “In my mind it just makes good common sense to keep the open space and save the taxpayers the money in the long run.”

At least one resident took offense to Morrill’s voting against the tax cut.

“I found it upsetting and appalling because even though the voters voted for it, they still voted against it,” resident Denise Catalano said. “Duane’s reply was, ‘Well, so you see the voters voted 60-40 and so did the council.’

“It sounds like they are only representing 40 percent of the [borough] then,” she added. “If they are voting based on the minority of the [borough] that voted, then I’d say they aren’t representing the majority of people.”

Catalano went on to say that she was surprised that the two councilmen voted the way they did.

“I thought that they should have all voted for it. I was surprised to see that they’d still vote against it even though the majority of … voters voted for it,” she continued.

The issue of cutting the open space tax rate became controversial during the summer when the Borough Council spent several meetings debating whether to submit a question on the open space tax rate to a referendum vote.

The council ended up accepting the referendum question with a 3-2 vote at the Aug. 18 council meeting, just nine days before the deadline to submit referendum questions to the state.

Council members Scott Larkin, NancyAnn Fama and Gary Baldwin supported adding the question to the ballot, while Mayer and Morrill did not.

When the topic of the open space tax first came up, the argument was whether to keep it at 3 cents or lower it to 1.5 cents, until Larkin eventually proposed the compromise of 2.25 cents per $100 of assessed valuation.

Under the current 3-cent tax, Tinton Falls will collect $901,774 in dedicated open space funding, according to Pfeffer. With the rate cut approved by voters, approximately $676,000 will be collected during the 2010 tax year.

Pfeffer also has said that currently there is approximately $1.7 million in the open space trust fund.

According to Borough Clerk Karen Mount-Taylor, the borough collected $384,181 through the open space tax in 2007. After the borough’s property revaluation in 2008, the amount collected rose to $876,746.

With the tax rate cut approved, the average resident will receive a $25.79 tax cut this year. Last year, a resident with a house assessed at the borough average of $343,760 paid about $103 in taxes for open space.

Contact Kenny Walter at

kwalter@gmnews.com.