>Municipal taxes to increase 5 percent in Ridgewood
Thursday, May 13, 2010
BY MICHAEL SEDON
The Ridgewood News
STAFF WRITER
https://www.northjersey.com/news/93711649_Municipal_taxes_to_increase_5_percent_in_Ridgewood.html
Ridgewood officials will not seek a waiver from Trenton to exceed the state-mandated cap on spending.
The preliminary 2010 municipal budget included an estimated tax rate increase of 8.8 percent or $302 for the average home in the village assessed at $800,000. But it was uncertain if the village would receive a waiver from the state allowing it to exceed the 4 percent cap. If granted, the waiver would have negatively impacted the 2011 budget, because the amount over the cap would be added as a penalty to the 2011 budget.
Without the waiver, this year’s budget will increase by 5.16 percent or $182 per average assessed home, for a $3,588 average municipal tax bill for this year, said Village Manager Ken Gabbert during Wednesday night’s public budget hearing.
“The total budget being adopted is $41,351,367,” he said. “That represents a 1.9 percent decrease from the adopted 2009 budget.”
Although the overall budget was reduced, Gabbert said, rising costs and reduced state aid have forced the village to increase taxes.
Layoffs are also on the way as originally planned, but the exact number of positions to be cut was unavailable as of Wednesday night.
“The official plan to [the state Civil Service Commission] was ‘Fed Exed’ on May 10, and the council is making minor changes to the planned layoffs,” Gabbert said in an e-mail. “We should have the layoff list from Civil Service within 30 days.”
A second round of layoffs may be necessary because of the decision to not seek the state waiver, which leaves the village having to cut an additional $1,044,800 from this year’s budget, Gabbert said.
In the first round of layoffs, police officers and firefighters were not considered because of the number of high-ranking officials in both departments that have chosen to retire, but layoffs in those departments could be considered in the second round, Gabbert said.
“Civil Service selects the persons actually to be laid off, as some staff have bumping [seniority] rights,” Gabbert explained. “We are meeting with each of the unions and are seeking to reduce the number of staff that will be included in a second round of layoffs.”
Previously, 34 notices were sent to village employees in danger of losing their jobs.
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