Montclair Council OKs Town Budget At Packed Meeting: See Tax Impact

MONTCLAIR, NJ — The Montclair Town Council voted to adopt the 2023 municipal budget during their public meeting on Tuesday evening. It includes a tax increase for local homeowners.

Township CFO Padmaja Rao, acting township manager Brian Scantlebury and financial consultant Bob Benecke hosted a public presentation on the town budget earlier this month. The local purpose tax levy is set at $59,144,712 in 2023, which is an increase of 1.95 percent from last year’s municipal purpose tax levy of $58,014,756. Read More: Montclair Town Budget Headed To Council: Here's The Tax Impact (VIDEO)

A home assessed at $633,600 will pay $5,236 for the municipal portion of its property taxes under the latest town budget – an $80 increase from last year (see other scaled increases in the chart below).

In a recent email, council member Peter Yacobellis pointed out that the 2023 budget will result in less than a 2 percent increase to the portion of the overall property tax bill under the town council’s control.

Property taxes in New Jersey are mainly made up of three parts: municipal, school and county. Here’s how that played out in Montclair during 2022, according to state figures:

• School – 57%
• Municipal and Library – 26%
• County – 17%

Yacobellis said that overall spending in the municipal budget is up 5 percent, driven by inflation and additional personnel costs.

“The reason we can increase spending by 5 percent and hold the line on a tax increase of 2 percent is due to increased revenues from parking and PILOTS, use of final American Rescue Plan dollars, use of reserves and holding back some debt repayment (still paying $1 million),” the councilman said.

According to Yacobellis, other budget highlights include:

• Full time social worker added
• 3 firefighters added (offset expected attrition)
• Rent Control office fully funded
• Boost to Recreation Dept. funding
• Statutory $410,000 increase in library funding + carrying over $515,000 supplemental funding level from 2022
• Funding included for Vision Zero Task Force work, bike racks
• Funding included for Stormwater Infrastructure improvements
• Funding included for update to Watchung Plaza Park
• Funding included for fixing Mountainside Tennis Courts

The council voted unanimously to approve the budget. However, Robert Russo later asked that his vote be changed to an "abstention."

The municipal budget document can be seen online here. Watch a video of the town budget hearing below.

In related news, the Montclair Board of Education voted to pass the school budget for 2023-2024 during their meeting on Monday.

The district’s latest budget also includes dozens of staff cuts, which several local students protested at Monday’s board of education meeting, as well as the town council meeting on Tuesday. Read More: Montclair Students Hold Walkout Over Teacher Cuts In School Budget

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