Ridgewood Village Council approves 2012 budget by a 3-2 margin
June 26, 2012
the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood NJ , The Village Council held a public hearing last night on the 2012 municipal budget .The budget passed by a 3 to 2 margin with departing Mayor Keith D. Killion and Councilwomen Bernadette Walsh voting “NO” .

Walsh had made a very compelling case earlier about the Villages potential liability due to the tremendous amount of tax appeals .Walsh felt the Village was seriously underestimating the losses from those tax appeals in this depressed real estate market.

Killion and Walsh were also uneasy with some of the spending allocations and priorities including funding the Library at the loss of other departments and Village services.

The $45.2 million budget will increase the municipal portion of this year’s tax bill by $129 per household, based on the average assessed home value of $794,550.

Several key factors were sighted as driving costs higher in this year’s budget, including 2011 emergency storm-related costs, workers compensation claims and fire department salaries and wages ,government mandated expenditures such as police contractual salaries and group health insurance for village employees also increased .

It was however surprising that the budget passed based on rhetoric made during this past election. Many were looking for Paul Aronsohn to take the lead and offer up some new solutions and make good on his promise hold the hold on taxes and push for more efficient use of municipal funds to increase services but none were forth coming .

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