Morris Twp. Budget: $400,000 Home Would See $50 Tax Hike

The Morris Township Committee on Wednesday, April 14 introduced a budget that includes a small tax increase for township homeowners.

Daniel Caffrey and Peter Mancuso—who make up the committee's Finance, Insurance & Tax Assessor subcommittee—began the discussion. Caffrey said the total budget proposed for 2011 is $33.1 million, which he said was about $500,000 less than the township could have budgeted while still remaining in compliance with a state-mandated 2 percent cap on year-over-year increases to the tax levy. 

Caffrey said that the tax rate would increase under the new budget from $.602 to $.614 per $100 of assessed home value. This would translate, he said, to approximately $50 per year more in municipal taxes on a home with an assessed value of $400,000. That tax increase does not include county or school district taxes, which are set separately. 

"We're proud of the way we've been able to put this together," Mancuso said, adding that the township plans to maintain or increase services. He pointed, as an example, to the return of brush pick-up in the township, a service that had been suspended in 2010. Mancuso said also that no layoffs are planned for 2011. 

Mayor H. Scott Rosenbush said the township chose not to exceed the 2 percent budget cap—even when including spending that the township could legally consider exceptions to the cap, and calculate separately. 

"We had $425,000 in extra pension liabilities," he said. "That could be outside the cap if we had wanted it to be."

Due to retooled processes and efficiencies, and generally "doing more with less," Mancuso said,  he was pleased that the budget came in as low as it did, considering that costs like unemployment and group insurance had increased.