Budget Season Heats Up In Nutley: Town, School Updates

NUTLEY, NJ — Budget season is heating up in Nutley, with town and school district administrators getting ready for public hearings in April.

Property taxes have consistently been one of the most pressing issues in Essex County, including Nutley, which had the 95th highest average property taxes in New Jersey last year. The average residential property tax in Nutley in 2021 was $12,344 for a home valued at $321,172. That was a $553 increase from 2020 – a difference of 4.69 percent.

• Read More: NJ's Largest Tax Bills: Belleville, Nutley Rank High On List
• Read More: Tax Gap In Essex County; Many Wealthier Towns Pay Lower Rates

Property taxes in New Jersey are made up of three parts: school, municipal and county. Here's how that broke down in Nutley last year:

• School – 50.4%
• Municipal – 33.4%
• County – 16.3%

TOWN BUDGET UPDATE

The Nutley Board of Commissioners held a budget workshop meeting on March 23 to begin hammering out the details of this year’s municipal spending plan.

Town spokespeople told Patch the municipal budget will be introduced at the public meeting on Tuesday, April 5 at 7 p.m., at Nutley Town Hall, 3rd Floor Commission Chambers. Information about the budget will be available on the town website on Wednesday, April 6.

Details about the possible tax impact to homeowners weren’t immediately available.

SCHOOL BUDGET UPDATE

The Nutley Board of Education approved the district’s preliminary budget during their meeting on Feb. 28. The board offered a presentation about the 2022-23 spending plan, which had a 2 percent tax levy increase, but was still in the early stages of development, administrators said (watch the video below).

That meeting took place before Gov. Phil Murphy’s office released the proposed state school aid figures for fiscal year 2023. Nutley would get a total of $7,970,806 under the proposal, a decrease of 4.99 percent from last year.

Nutley is the only municipality in Essex County that will face a cut in state aid.

• Read More: Belleville Will Get More NJ School Aid; Nutley Will Lose Some
• Read More: Essex County Will Get Most School Aid In NJ By Wide Margin

The goal is to have the final budget prepared for a hearing at the regular board of education meeting on Monday, April 25, with the latest possible date of Monday, May 9, administrators said during the Feb. 28 meeting.

School officials also plan to present the updated tax impact of the budget at the April 25 meeting, a district spokesperson told Patch.

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