Galloway Township Council Approves Budget with Minor Amendments

The Galloway Township Council passed its budget with a few amendments that will have no additional impact on the taxpayer at its meeting Tuesday night.

The final total budget for the 2011-12 fiscal year is $23,835,926.33, putting the township $2,912,825.83 under the spending cap. It met the 2 percent cap levy.

The tax levy comes out to $15,836,155.72.

The amendments were for insurance liabilities that exceeded what the township originally budgeted for, and came out to an additional $57,192.

The township is permitted to conduct a self-evaluation of its budget two out of every three years, which it voted unanimously in favor of doing this year.

Tuesday night’s meeting also served as the public hearing for the budget, in which just one resident spoke. He asked for an assurance from the township that the budget will be lower next year, while recognizing that a lot of work went in to the budget.

The resident was part of a committee of citizens who met with the council and the different departments over the winter. , and was scrutinized by the council and the committee.

The budget was then introduced on March 23, and passed with little fanfare on Tuesday.

Galloway Township Mayor Keith Hartman also spoke of the council’s most recent meeting with the District 9 legislators on Tuesday morning. Galloway Township was recently , and is dealing with a new set of legislators.

Those legislators are no strangers to the problems facing Galloway Township, however.

“Their thoughts are in line with ours. They had knowledge of some of our issues from dealing with them in other towns,” Deputy Mayor Don Purdy said.

“They represent towns that are similar to ours, and that helps us,” Hartman said. “We were able to give them an update, show what obstacles we have, what the state is in the way of, and they will assist us in removing or overcoming those roadblocks.”

Galloway residents had been hoping the district would set up a satellite office in the township, which doesn’t seem as though it will be a reality.

“They told us we won’t need that because we’ll be sick of them,” Hartman said. “They said they’ll be down here so much we’ll get sick of them.”

The beginning may be a town hall meeting. Hartman and Purdy said a date and location may be finalized over the next week.