Proposed West Orange Town Budget Has Small Tax Increase For Homeowners

WEST ORANGE, NJ — Budget season continues to roll onward in West Orange, with a “return to normal” on the horizon after two years of the coronavirus pandemic, a town official said Tuesday.

John Gross, the municipal business administrator/CFO, told Patch that the proposed town budget will mean a small tax increase for local homeowners in West Orange. The average property owner with a home assessed at $325,000 would see a $7 monthly increase to the municipal portion of their tax bill – about $84 per year.

The budget anticipates an approximate 2 percent increase in the amount to be raised by taxes, or roughly $1.2 million. All other budgetary impacts are addressed by $5.2 million in other new revenues/offsets, Gross said.

Gross said some of the largest cost drivers to this year’s town budget include:

“The 2022 budget anticipates a total increase of $6.4 million consisting of salaries and wages up $1.6 million, employee pension payments up $0.2 million, employee health benefits are up $1.5 million, joint meeting assessments up $0.26 million, library up $1.2 million, debt service up $0.32 million, deferred charges up $1.3 million.”

The West Orange Town Council held a workshop on the proposed budget last week. See a copy of the mayor's recommended budget here.

According to Gross, the council intends to introduce the budget on June 14. A public hearing is scheduled for July 19, which may also be the date of adoption.

Property taxes in New Jersey are made up of three parts: school, municipal and county. Here's how that broke down in West Orange last year, according to state figures:

• School – 61.1%
• Municipal – 25.7%
• County – 13.2%

In May, the West Orange Board of Education unanimously approved the school district's 2022-2023 budget, which will include a 2.42 percent tax increase for local homeowners.

It will mean a yearly tax increase of $218 for a home assessed at $336,282 – similar to what administrators predicted at a preliminary budget hearing in March.

Administrators said the district would have faced a massive shortfall and several millions of dollars in potential cuts if state aid remained flat. But the district later got good news: West Orange will get the highest school aid increase in Essex County under Gov. Phil Murphy’s recently unveiled school aid plan – a 44.27 percent jump from last year.

• Read More: West Orange Will Get More School Aid From NJ Under Murphy Plan
• Read more: West Orange School Board Approves Budget; Here's The Tax Impact

Send local news tips and correction requests to eric.kiefer@patch.com. Learn more about posting announcements or events to your local Patch site. Don’t forget to visit the Patch West Orange Facebook page.