South Orange Passes 2011 Municipal Budget

On September 12, the South Orange Board of Trustees approved an amended 2011 municipal budget.  The original introduced budget was approved on March 28, 2011 with a 3.96% tax increase.  However, after six months of meetings and budget workshops, the Village was able to reduce that increase to 1.57%, the lowest in twelve years.

At their most recent , the trustees brought in different viewpoints of how much of a tax increase should be implemented.  Entering the meeting, Trustee Michael Goldberg was , while Trustee Deborah Davis Ford wasn’t willing to budge from the 2% cap set forth by Governor Chris Christie last year. 

The board agreed to a compromise where cuts would be made to lower the increase to 1.57%.  Among the cuts agreed upon was $40,000 for a business recruiter/lobbyist, $40,000 for a planning consultant, $9,000 for Main Street South Orange’s Downtown after Sundown concert series and $5,000 was taken out of the budget for holiday decorations. 

On Monday, the proposed amended budget was read aloud and voted on by the Board of Trustees.  It passed 4-1 (Trustee Janine Bauer was absent from the meeting) with Trustee Michael Goldberg being the sole nay vote. 

Village Administrator John Gross explained the budget before the vote.  The largest part of property taxes were school taxes which is 55% of a resident’s tax bill.  The largest expenditure of the Village came from personnel costs as $21.8 million will be spent on salaries, wages, taxes and benefits in 2011.  For an average household making $558,141, approximately $66 would be levied in municipal taxes with the approval of this budget.

Following the presentation, residents were given the opportunity to voice their opinions on the budget.  South Orange resident and business owner Ben Salmon was dismayed at the removal of the business recruiter from the budget.  He felt the town should invest more in the downtown.

“We’ve been hearing about this part-time business recruiter position for two years now,” said Salmon.  “It kind of comes in to the budget, then comes out, then comes back in.  And every time I hear “yeah, we are all supportive, we all think it’s important, we all think it’s going to help the down town, but later.  We’ll add it in later.”… Well that’s been two years and now we’re back having the conversation again and guess what we’re hearing, we’re hearing “later.” … I just don’t ever see this happening; I just don’t ever see us making a commitment to the downtown.”

Salmon went on to ask why there are a lack of business development committees around town.  Salmon also asked the board to reconsider removing the holiday decorations from the budget.

Trustee Nancy Gould explained the position was removed until the completion of the Special Improvement District (SID) advisory committee and whether the position will be involved in that entity, should it be enacted, still had yet to be decided.   Even if the position isn’t involved with a SID, or if the SID is not enacted, Gould explained that it would still take a number of months to advertise the position and fill the position.  Thus, 2012 was the target date to hire fill the position.  Gould asked the rest of the board if they would agree to add the position back to the 2012 budget and no other trustee objected to her request. 

Davis Ford then explained why, in her opinion, the position was removed from this year’s budget.

“At our last budget meeting, it was sacrificed as a compromise,” said Davis Ford.  “My position was that we needed to keep the 2% (tax increase) in order to keep the full support of the decorations downtown, which is really a major ascetic and visual driver for retail, that we needed the business (recruiter), but some people wanted 0(% tax increase), some people wanted 1.2(% tax increase).”

 Trustee Mark Rosner explained that the town’s contract with Main Street South Orange should be considered a downtown investment.  The town is giving Main Street South Orange a contract worth $50,000 in 2011.

“Main Street has an economic development committee, a design committee and other committees as part of that agreement,” said Rosner.  “So when you say we have no economic development group, that’s not a totally true statement because Main Street I acting as a wing of the government under a service agreement.”

Another South Orange resident, Bob Chandross, spoke during the public forum.  He expressed outrage that the town waited until September to finalize the budget, which he feels the Trustees should be “very regretful and blame yourselves.”

“With a profound apology to Winston Churchill, I would describe this budget as a process where never have so many, worked so hard, and accomplished so little,” said Chandross.

Chandross explained that he thinks the annual projections are typically lower and that the Trustees shouldn’t cut so much.  He thought the budget should have included funds from the surplus which would’ve lowered the tax increase.  He also asked why the town has not changed the terms of SOPAC’s mortgage.  He asked if the Trustees were prepared to pass a resolution saying SOPAC was unable to pay their mortgage and modify the agreement.

Trustee Davis Ford took exception to some of the comments made by Chandross.

“We take a lot of time, we go line by line,” said Davis Ford.  “We made some aggressive decisions and I think that is reflected in the below 2% increase. … Each and every one of us up here pays the same taxes. We pay the same taxes.  Wouldn’t one think that we would want relief from the taxes?  I’m not a masochist and I believe my peers on the board are not masochists. … I want to make it clear that I will not allow myself or my peers of being painted as insensitive and not capable of making sound and fiscal decisions for our residents and tax payers in the role we are elected to serve.”

Trustee Howard Levison brought up structural changes that were being made, including the outsourcing of code enforcement and the court operation.

“Those structural changes will make significant changes in this year’s and future years’ expenses,” said Levison.

Trustee Michael Goldberg thanked the staff and committees for their work on the budget this year.  He then announced he would not be voting in favor of it, feeling that the town should be dipping in to the surplus.

“I think this year we had some real opportunities…to utilize the large amount of money that was generated…to provide real tax relief without sacrificing services,” said Goldberg.

Davis Ford was “stunned” by Goldberg’s comments. 

“This budget was crafted by negotiation and compromise to do the best by the village,” said Davis Ford.

Davis Ford was referencing the negotiations that took place at the August budget workshop.  At that workshop, the consensus on the budget was 4-1 with Goldberg being the only trustee not in favor.

“We all came to terms and we all agreed that this was going to be presented and we were all going to support it since it took an effort and input and negotiations and tremendous discussions over the months,” said Davis Ford.  “So I am absolutely stunned to discover that we are not going to have a unanimous vote.”

Goldberg responded that Davis Ford wouldn’t be stunned if she “had read the budget workshop minutes that you approved just a few minutes ago from August 8.”

“I believe the minutes explicitly state that the majority of the board did agree, that’s correct,” said Goldberg.  “I made my concerns known at that time, so you should not be stunned.  This should not be a surprise to you.”

Village President Alex Torpey thanked both for their comments and asked that the budget be read before the vote.  Three resolutions were voted on involving the budget.  All three were passed 4-1.  The budget is available to read at Village Hall and at the South Orange Public Library.