The Week Ahead: Budgets, Budgets, Budgets

The hot topic in Manalapan and Englishtown this week is the 2012 budgets. The Freehold Regional High School District, the Manalapan-Englishtown Regional School District, the Englishtown Council and the Manalapan Township Committee will all be presenting and voting to adopt their 2012 budgets this week.

If you are interested in attending these presentations so that you can have a better understanding of what affect these budgets may have on your taxes see the information below.

Freehold Regional High School District

Budget Presentation on Monday, March 26 at 8 p.m. at Freehold High School, 2 Robertsville Rd., Freehold.

The budget presentation and hearing will be followed by a regular board of education meeting. For the agenda, click here.

Manalapan-Englishtown Regional School District

Budget Presentation on Tuesday, March 27 at 7:30 p.m. at , 155 Pease Rd., Manalapan.

According to the agenda, the tentative budget being presented for the district is a total of $75,838,322, $51,552,572 of which will be raised by tax levy.

A normal board of education meeting will follow the budget presentation and adoption. For the full agenda, click here.

Englishtown Council

Budget Presentation on Wednesday, March 28 at 6:30 p.m. at the , 15 Main St., Englishtown.

The Mayor and Council held two special meetings in March to discuss the 2012 budget and the rise it will have on Englishtown taxes. A lot of what is included in this year's budget is mandated by the county or state and the council has no control over those costs. However, the council does have control over certain administrative requests such as a 2 percent raise for government employees and hiring additional police officers, as was requested by the . 

At the last special meeting the council decided not to eliminated the 2 percent salary increases. They also decided not to hire an additional special officer, but to retain the seventh police officer for the department, according to Englishtown CFO and Borough Administrator Laurie Finger.

Manalapan Township Committee

Budget Introduction on Wednesday, March 28 at 8 p.m. at the , 120 Rt. 522, Manalapan.

The budget will simply be introduced at this meeting, the committee will not be voting to adopt on Wednesday.