Summit Council Meeting On Amended $51.7M Budget Tuesday

SUMMIT, NJ — The city's $52.1 million budget, first introduced at the March 24 Common Council meeting, was amended at the May 26 meeting and is now up for a hearing and final vote this Tuesday. The new spending plan has decreased slightly to $51.7 million.

The Summit Common Council meeting will be conducted virtually. It will be livestreamed through Youtube here starting at 7:30 p.m. Those who want to participate via Zoom can join via this link. You can click "raise hand"to make a comment during the public commenting portion. (Find more information and instructions here).

The budget was to include a $27.2 million tax levy, the total amount to be funded by residents' property taxes. That amount represented a $476,000 increase over last year. Since the increase is offset by revenues, it equated to only a .75 percent rise in the tax rate. With the amendments, the levy is now $27.1 million, equating to a .14 percent increase in the rate over last year.

That means that residents will pay $8.54 per $1,000 of assessed property that they own, up a penny from last year's tax rate of $8.53.

But taxpayers' total property tax bill is only partly affected by this municipal rate. Overall taxes are determined more by the school tax rate (which accounts to approximately half of the bill) and the Union County budget, which makes up approximately 28 percent. See page 14 of this document for more information.

An official said last month that no layoffs were anticipated in the spending plan.

According to the city's original presentation in March, the city would maintain 198 full and part-time employees, down slightly from 200 in 2018. A full-time position in the Department of Community Programs will not be filled.

Coronavirus calculations

However, in many towns and cities in New Jersey, coronavirus has changed the amounts of both revenues and expenditures that officials must anticipate in their 2020 budgets, spurring a need for new calculations.

While the state is providing aid to offset certain overexpenditures, cities are also grappling with losses on the revenue side — including hotel fees, parking ticket fees, and construction permit fees. Some cities have turned to layoffs to keep the budget flat, while others have looked to increasing taxes or using surplus.

Summit anticipates a loss of $319,884 in revenues this year over last year, including $54,000 less in interest on its investments, $41,000 less from court fines, $30,000 less from motel occupancy fees.

The amendments passed in May sliced spending across various city departments.

The city also may save costs because of canceled events due to coronavirus precautions, such as the July 4 celebration.

As currently proposed, the Summit budget maintains the city's current $6.9 million surplus. The city also has proposed a $4.2 million capital budget for special projects.

The largest appropriations in the budget go toward salaries for city workers, including police and fire; benefits and pensions, debt service, and approximately $1 million in transfer station disposal charges.

To read the budget analysis from the city, click here.

If major changes are proposed again, the budget will have to be reintroduced, then passed at a separate meeting.

This week, two of the candidates in the upcoming November Common Council election weighed in on aspects of the budget.

Ward 1 council candidate Eileen Kelly said she believes that with more people working from home, "The proposed $380,000 Broad Street East parking garage project seems out of touch with the rapidly changing realities facing many Summit residents."

Her Republican running mate, Kirsten McCumber in the 2nd Ward, encouraged the council to adopt proposed resolutions that will help downtown businesses.

Do you have thoughts on comments to share on these issues or others? Email caren.lissner@patch.com.

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