Howell Council Holding Special Budget Meeting Thursday

HOWELL, NJ — The Howell Township Council has scheduled a special meeting for Thursday to review the 2017 municipal budget and potentially cut $900,000 from it.

A notice distributed by Township Clerk Penny Wollman said the meeting is scheduled for 5 p.m. on Thursday in the council chamber.

At the governing body's April 18 meeting, residents packed the room, demanding the council and Mayot Theresa Berger take action to reduce the proposed increase in the tax levy to zero. Many of the residents in attendance were from the Equestra development, an upscale 55-and-over adult community off Route 33, where many of the homes for sale are listed for a minimum of $500,000.

Equestra residents complained that they felt they were being targeted to carry a disproportionate portion of the tax increases, with some citing annual revaluations that they say are placing too high of a value on their homes.

Berger, Deputy Mayor Robert Nicastro and Councilman Robert Walsh repeatedly explained that the revaluations are a countywide adjustment, and that every home in town is affected — not just one development.

Property revaluations are always problematic for towns. In some towns, revaluations — where every property's assessed value is adjusted to bring it in line with current market values — have had to be ordered after being allowed to remain unchanged for 20 years. Those revaluations can cause a seismic shift in property tax burdens.

That did not stop the Equestra residents from insisting they were being targeted — a claim fueled by a comment from Walsh: "Let's face it: Nobody moved into Equestra because they were poor," he said, a comment he later apologized for after a resident took him to task over it. "This is why we feel we are being targeted," she said.

What exactly the council and Berger will find to cut is unclear. The municipal budget makes up 16.7 percent of the property tax burden in Howell. Walsh said he had no problem with cutting a department to reach the $900,000 goal, and even went so far as to repeatedly note that a plan two years ago to shift the township's emergency dispatch services to the county would have saved $600,000.

Councilwoman Evelyn O'Donnell called the suggestion of cutting a department irresponsible, saying the budget already is pared to the bone.

"The FBI recommends we have 140 police officers for a town the size of Howell," she said. "We have 86."

In response to a resident's questions about whether they have used a consultant to look for inefficiencies, O'Donnell said it has been looked at and cutting consultants' fees was one area where officials felt the town could easily save money.

Berger and the council repeatedly pointed out that the residents in the audience weren't the only ones affected by the tax increases.

"Some of us up here are paying $20,000, $22,000 in property taxes. We feel it too," she said.

The council chamber is on the second floor of the municipal building on Route 9.

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