Video: 2011 Municipal Budget Passes, Public Reacts

Manalapan Mayor Andrew Lucas reviewed the 2011 municipal budget before it’s adoption at a Township Committee meeting on Wednesday, May 11 in the courtroom of the . All committee members voted for the budget, except for committeewoman Michelle Roth. 

The 2011 municipal budget of $31,235,685 calls for a flat tax throughout the township. In a tax rate comparison from last year, the total taxes will be rising 0.002 cents per $100 of assessed valuation, from $2.027 to $2.029. 

The Manalapan-Englishtown Regional school district tax rate went up 0.013 cents, while the Freehold Regional High School district tax rate decreased by 0.011 cents per $100 assessed valuation, since last year, for Manalapan residents. 

Manalapan Township is split up into two fire districts which differentiate between tax rates. The property taxes in fire district #1 will go up $15.11 on average, and will go down an average of $3.78 for residents living in fire district #2.

The portions of the tax rate is broken down as follows: 44.5 percent goes to the Manalapan-Englishtown Regional School District, 20.7 percent goes towards Freehold Regional High School District, 16.4 percent goes towards municipal costs, 15.4 percent goes towards county county, 2.1 percent goes towards fire districts, and 1 percent goes towards municipal open space.

“A lot of our residents that are new to town feel that since they are writing their check out to the Township of Manalapan that that’s where property tax dollars go in it’s entirety, and only 16.4 percent of every dollar that you give actually comes to the Township of Manalapan,” Mayor Lucas explained.  

The average homeowner will pay $104.53 a month in municipal taxes. The municipal portion of the property tax bill covers all of the basic services provided by Manalapan municipal government, including public safety, public works, garbage and recycling collection and disposal, parks and recreation, board of health, building construction and land use services, among other things, according to Mayor Lucas. 

The most expensive department is public safety, which utilizes 24.5 percent of the budget. Following behind are utilities, sanitation and landfill which uses 13.8 percent of the budget, and insurance which uses 13.2 percent of the budget.  

Sources of revenue for the municipal budget come from tax payers (60.7 percent), surplus utilization (13.8 percent), state aid (12.4 percent), local revenues (5.4 percent), delinquent taxes-prior years (4 percent), Uniform Commercial Code fees (2.9 percent), grants (0.3 percent), uniform fire safety/general capital (0.3 percent), and inter-local services (0.3 percent). 

“We have been very cognizant of the burden on our tax payers,” Mayor Lucas said. 

Overall, the municipal budget has decreased. In 2009, the budget was approximately $31.9 million and in 2011 the budget is roughly $600,000 less at $31.2 million. 

One main concern for both committeewoman Michelle Roth and several townspeople was in regard to the dwindling amount of surplus.  Approximately $4.2 million in surplus was utilized this year to help maintain a flat tax, about $1 million less in surplus than in 2010. 

Within the past two years the government has used less revenue because overall spending has been cut. The current surplus is $771,000, which is significantly less than it has been in the past. When Mayor Lucas first became mayor in January 2007, $4.9 million was available in surplus. 

Mayor Lucas said that the loss in surplus was due to paying off debt and school tax deferral, and that the government is being run more efficiently now than it has in the past. The debt in Manalapan Township is at the lowest it has been in the history of Manalapan, Mayor Lucas said.

Manalapan Township regenerates between $3 million and $5 million every year and Mayor Lucas said that 2011 should be no different; thus, a lack of surplus is not a concern, according to the mayor.