T.F. takes state delay to review budget

T.F. takes state delay to review budget
BY KENNY WALTER Staff Writer

TINTON FALLS — A delay in the state’s review of the Tinton Falls municipal budget may mean that the borough will go back and make changes.

The administration announced the delay at the July 20 council meeting, where they held a public hearing on the budget.

“We are at the end of the road, and we need to take every cent we can find and eliminate that expenditure, if we can, without hurting the services to our municipality,” Councilman Gary Baldwin said.

Chief Financial Officer Stephen Pfeffer said the borough is using the state delay to review operating budgets of each department to see if any cuts are possible.

The proposed $22 million budget, up from last year’s $21.6 million spending plan, includes an $11.7 million tax levy and an increase in the tax rate of 1.26 cents per $100 of assessed evaluation, bringing the tax rate to 39.26 cents per $100 of assessed valuation.

The budget also includes a 0.75-cent decrease in the borough’s open space tax rate and a $383,000 decrease in state aid from last year.

Pfeffer said that Tinton Falls is one of a few Monmouth County municipalities with solid finances.

“In relation to the rest of Monmouth County, the borough is one of the few municipalities that remains on solvent footing,” he said. Pfeffer also said the borough has $3.2million in its surplus account. He said the borough is ahead of the curve in limiting employees from amassing sick and vacation days.

“Our borough employees, with the exception of the police department, are capped for sick time at $7,500,” he said. “We’re below the state threshold.

“The police department has a formula in their contract that can be above the state’s amount of $15,000,” he added.

Councilwoman NancyAnn Fama suggested that the borough cut the operating budget further in order to fund a road program.

“We are looking for a road program in this budget,” she said. “Let’s ask each department head to reduce their department by 1.8 percent, and perhaps we can gain this money back and start a road program.”

However, Pfeffer disputed whether or not it is possible to cut the departments enough to fund a road program.

“We are still reviewing the operating budgets for further reductions, but we are not going to be able to get to the number you were talking about, because there are other numbers that are in there that are mandated that we can’t reduce,” he said.

Councilman Andrew Mayer, who participated in the meeting via telephone, challenged the administration to find a way to fund the road program.

“We do need to seriously look at adding a line item in this budget for a road program,” he said. “I’d like to challenge the administration to go back and look at where those dollars might come from.”

The talk of adding a road program comes after the council voted in April against bonding almost $2 million for a road program. Baldwin and Councilman Scott Larkin were the only ones to support the measure.

Baldwin said he still believes bonding would be the way to go.

“My recommendation is that if we come up with $100,000 or some lesser number, it probablywouldn’t be wise to take that number and try to do 300 feet of a road at this time until the number becomes substantial,” he said. “We want to be careful as a council not to collect money for a road program and spend it unwisely because of the things that are out there today.

“The cost of bonding is low, and that is why I proposed we strike while the iron is hot and we do some bonding,” he added. “We do need to do something with the roads, but how to do it became the issue.”

Councilman Duane Morrill said he was concerned that certain borough revenues are down for the second year in a row.

“This is two years in a row we are looking at [that] uniform construction [fees] is down, court fees are down, hotel [tax] down,” he said. “If all these things are going down, obviously less work is going on in these offices. Do we need the full complement of staff that we have in these offices?”

Pfeffer and Borough Administrator Gerald Turning Sr. both said that the borough has transferred employees from different departments based on workload, and all departments operate at a minimum.

During the public hearing, resident Leo Lomangino suggested that the borough form a finance committee to study ways to bring in attractive development.

“I was wondering if we can have a finance committee so that we could work along with Mr. Pfeffer, and maybe that will help us move the ship a little with aggressive projects like the outlet mall,” he said.

If the borough makes any significant changes to the budget, they will have to reopen the public hearing. If not, the borough can adopt the budget as soon as the state reviews it.







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