Stafford Township Municipal Tax Rate Should Decrease in 2015

by Steve Moran

The Stafford Township Council introduced the 2015 municipal budget and a resolution to restore the Open Space Tax to its pre-Sandy rate at the April 21 council meeting.

The overall budget is slightly more than $43 million and is only $60,000 more than the 2014 budget, according Township Administrator James Moran, who read the resolutions into the record at the meeting.

The overall tax levy to be collected rose 1.97 percent, but due to a nearly $150 million increase in rateables - most coming from properties that have now recovered from Superstorm Sandy - the nearly flat budget allowed for a 1.4 cent decrease in the municipal tax rate, Moran said on Wednesday.

After Sandy, the township reassessed all storm-damaged properties to a lower value to help ease the burden on the storm’s victims. Now as those properties have been repaired or replaced, they are again returning to their full value of the tax rolls, he added.

Council members also unanimously approved returning the open space tax to its pre-Sandy rate of a penny. After the storm, it had been dropped to $.025 as another relief for the taxpayers, said Mayor John Spodofora during the meeting.

The open space tax is used to fund the purchase of land to be preserved in the township and help stem over development.

The return of the Open Space Tax to a penny brings the overall tax decrease for 2015 to $.065 on each $100 of assessed property value.

The budget breakdown is as follows: Approximately $32.5 millionin capital expenditures, such as salaries, equipment and day to day operations. This is 3.5 percent under the state-mandated expenditures cap, said Moran.

Outside of the cap items such as debt service are $8.56 million and there is slightly more than $2 millionto be reserved for potential uncollected taxes, according to the budget resolution.

The total budget will require less money to be collected than state allows them as well, said Moran.

“We are two percent under the revenue cap and don’t need to collect any more in taxes,” said Moran.

The full budget will be printed in the Times-Beacon Newspapers on May 7 and an open public budget hearing will be held at 7 p.m. on May 19 at the Municipal Building at 260 East Bay Avenue.