Eagle Point Throws Uncertainty Into Gloucester County Budget

Gloucester County's tax levy is going down under the budget introduced by the freeholders Wednesday night—it's just a question of by how much.

It could be by $4 million.

It might be by just $1 million or less.

Or it might be somewhere in between.

reared its rusty head once again, throwing confusion into that budget process; while a could mean about a $3.3 million hit to the county, no one knows exactly the final damage.

West Deptford officials haven't released details of the settlement, complicating the county's calculation of the new tax rate, and now is further muddying the waters.

“The actual tax rate isn't struck yet, and probably won't be for some time,” county administrator Chad Bruner said. “We don't know what that factor is yet.”

Freeholder Director Robert M. Damminger said the settlement was something of a wild card, coming so soon into the new administration in West Deptford. Previously, the county was working with the township toward taking the tax appeal to court, he said.

“We knew this was coming,” Damminger said. “They decided, after two months in office, to settle—arbitrarily.”

But Republican freeholders Larry Wallace and Vincent Nestore challenged the uncertainty about the tax decrease, given the county's budget surplus—, at least in part, by pending tax appeals, like Sunoco's.

Wallace said it was disingenuous to suggest the settlement could wreck the tax decrease.

“We already have the money. We can cover it,” he said. “There's no reason to deny taxpayers the relief they need.”

The tax rate aside, what county officials do know for sure is that this year's budget comes in $3.2 million lower than it was last year—$198.7 million versus $201.9—and the amount set to be raised by taxes has dropped by $4.145 million, from $144.12 in 2011 to $139.975 this year.

Some of that has been accomplished through further job attrition—the county has shed 221 positions since 2008 via attrition—while the county saved money by reducing expenses throughout the government.

The budget also cuts the county's debt by $16.6 million by the end of 2012, and county officials project to further reduce debt by 31 percent by 2017.

“This was a tough budget year,” Damminger said. “We have a bare-bones budget that will not eliminate any of the services we already provide for our residents, and we will continue to place our emphasis on sharing services with other local governments.”

Wallace said the budget, which and Nestore termed a “Republican-style budget” moves things more to where he'd like to see them.

“Are we completely thrilled with the budget? No. Are we heading in the right direction? Yes,” Wallace said.