Budget Debate Continues In West Orange: Why The Sudden Increase?

WEST ORANGE, NJ — The debate continues over West Orange’s town budget – and a potential double-digit municipal tax increase for local homeowners.

The West Orange Town Council held another marathon workshop session on the municipal budget last week, circling back to find ways to chop away at a tax hike that was originally estimated at 16 percent.

Property taxes in New Jersey are generally made up of three parts: school, municipal and county. Read More: Average Property Tax Bill In West Orange Is Growing, Latest Data Shows

The potential municipal tax hike has been sparking an outcry from some local residents, several of whom showed up to sound off at a seven-hour budget workshop held on May 18. Read More: Frustrations Over West Orange Budget Broil At Council Meeting

The town’s business administrator/CFO, John Gross, has since proposed some ways to soften the tax impact of this year’s budget. They include creating new municipal fees, using reserve funds and making staff or service cuts – all of which have their pros and cons. Read More: 3 Ways To Reduce A Looming Tax Hike In West Orange

The council discussed some of these suggestions and got some line item projections at their second budget workshop on May 24. Watch the full video here.

“It’s very difficult – even at a 10 percent municipal increase – to find that acceptable, when the highest increase that we’ve had prior to probably 2012 is 8.29 percent,” West Orange Council President Tammy Williams said.

“So we’re exceeding what was the highest municipal increase over a 12-year period,” Williams said.

“If we continue to do that and operate this way without making intense cuts in this current budget, then we are not going to be able to come from behind and move forward,” she continued. “Not with our reserves, not with our bond rating, and certainly not with our residents.”

“We’re going to have to do better,” Williams said.

‘WHY THE SUDDEN INCREASE?’

In 2022, the township budget saw less than a 2 percent increase to the local tax levy. In 2021, the increase was nearly flat. So why the big jump this year?

This was one of the questions posed by councilwoman Asmeret Ghebremicael at the council’s May 18 budget workshop.

“Why didn’t we gradually increase taxes in 2020 when it was 1.76 percent? [Or] in 2021 when it was 0.08 percent?” Ghebremicael asked. “This 16.20 percent increase didn’t come out of nowhere.”

“Why wouldn’t we have done a gradual increase?” she added.

Gross replied that there has been talk about “big increases coming” for the past few years during the administration of former mayor Robert Parisi.

“The mayor at that time had a very strong view that – and I’ll use his words – ‘The dollar is better left in the taxpayer’s pockets than in our savings account,’” Gross said. “That was the position and theory behind the budgets that the mayor put forth.”

Councilwoman Michelle Casalino commented that the previous few years’ worth of budgets took place during the coronavirus pandemic, when many local residents were financially struggling and out of work.

“We had people not even paying their property taxes,” she said, adding that landlords with multi-family homes also took a hit when renters couldn’t afford to pay their bills.

“So we tried to keep it as low as possible,” Casalino said.

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