No Property Tax Relief For Basking Ridge Amid Coronavirus

BASKING RIDGE, NJ — Bernards Township residents will not receive a grace period to pay their quarterly taxes despite Gov. Phil Murphy's executive order offering municipalities the option to defer payments to June 1 due to the coronavirus impact. Basking Ridge residents will still need to make their quarterly tax payment on May 1.

Bernards Township Mayor Jim Baldassare said the grace period was not given to residents because there was no relief offered to the township, which still is obligated to make upcoming payments.

"Unfortunately, the Township is still required to pay what is owed by statute and no relief has been given on these required obligations," Baldassare said.

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Bernards Township's upcoming payments include:

• May 1 – Board of Ed May Payment – $7,686,769.83
• May 15 – Somerset Co. Q2 Levy - $6,180,238.15
• June 1 – Board of Ed June Payment - $7,686,769.83

"Should Bernards Township be provided deferral relief with regard to our obligations to pay what is owed, the Township would undoubtedly be in a position to pass this relief along to our township residents as well," Baldassare said.

2020 Budget

On Tuesday, Bernards Township also passed their $41.9 million budget for 2020. This is a total of a 0.39 percent increase from 2019.

A home assessed at $611,873 will pay $30.08 per year or $7.52 more per quarter for the municipal services portion of the tax bill, according to Chief Financial Officer Sean McCarthy.

This increase in taxes covers the Township’s increased costs to provide and maintain all municipal services and infrastructure, McCarthy said.

"Of course the revenue side of the budget is the piece we are mostly concerned with as we work through dealing with the coronavirus," McCarthy said. "We do anticipate some pretty significant impact to our total revenue collections this year."

McCarthy said he is more concerned about 2021 than 2020 as far as impacts to the budget. The township has about 12.6 million in surplus this year that can help with any shortages.

McCarthy noted several areas where the township would be at-risk with revenue collection including tax collection, and local revenue from permits, licenses and fees, hotel tax and construction code fees.

However, as of the end of the April the township has already collected 67 percent of the needed revenue for 2020, McCarthy said.

"We were fortunate to be a bit ahead of pace before the shutdown and hopefully if we are able to get back to some relative normalcy in the next couple of weeks we should be able to carry through," McCarthy said of 2020.

Additionally, the township authorized the issuance of $10 million in tax anticipation notes at its April 14 meeting in the event they see exceptionally high delinquency levels that affect cash flow.

"We are doing everything we can to have all the tools available in the event we do see an issue in tax collection," McCarthy said.

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