2.15% Tax Increase Proposed In New Parsippany Budget

PARSIPPANY, NJ — After months of discussions between officials, Mayor Michael Soriano introduced his revised budget Tuesday to Township Council. The budget includes a municipal tax increase of 2.15 percent.

The budget also includes the $2.3 million loan that the administration and council agreed to take, along with $2.7 million allocated from the American Rescue Plan — a federal COVID relief package signed into law March 12.

The proposal features reductions across each department, but those cuts weren't immediately clear from the administration's news release. The administration says the reductions helped to avoid reducing or eliminating essential services.

The council must decide whether to approve it. The next meeting is slated for Aug. 3. Patch reached out to council members for their thoughts on the budget and will update with any responses.

“This budget is balanced, fiscally responsible, and meets both the Council and the Department of Community Affairs requirements,” said Business Administrator Fred Carr. “At the end of the day, it’s our duty as township administrators to continue providing the services that our residents depend on while keeping costs down. This budget meets every one of those requirements.”

The township will avoid any utility surplus transfers to offset budgetary shortfalls, opting instead to explore canceling appropriation reserves and treating township utilities as self-sustaining entities. The change will ensure utilities are both responsible for their own budget status and transparent in the township budgeting in the future, the administration said.

“Part of the reason I ran for mayor is because I felt that the township’s financial discipline needed improvement," Soriano said. "Now, with some fine-tuning and precision, our Township’s finances can finally start to improve."

But no step in getting the budget passed has been easy, as the township faced a $9 million revenue shortfall entering the process. The administration and council agreed June 1 for the township to take out a special emergency note of $2.3 million to help offset losses.

Parsippany expects to receive half of its federal $5.38 million allocation this year and the other half in 2022, allowing the township an opportunity to repay the loan in full next year with COVID relief money.

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