Borrowing from Peter to Pay Paul the Village Council Introduces the New Budget
May 30,2012
the staff of the Ridgewood blog.
Ridgewood NJ ,The Village council formally introduced the Village’s $45 million municipal budget with Councilwoman Bernadette Walsh being the only dissenting vote.
In its current form the budget would increase taxes $131 on the average resident.With a home assessed at $794,550, that would mean 3.79 % rate increase in property taxes. Currently no layoffs are planned but $100,000 was shifted from services to potentially keep the library open year-round..
Councilwoman Bernadette Walsh in the lone ‘no’ vote cited her need for more time to analyze the numbers , a disagreement with some of the allocations, and her own work as a corporate relocation consultant in the real estate industry leaving her with some suspicions of projected tax appeal losses and in her mind the potential loss of $1 million in the next year .Walsh would not discuss which appropriations she had issues with.
Village officials arrived at a 3.79 percent municipal tax increase instead of the often cited very preliminary 7.6 % number throw around in the past election campaign . About $1 million in cuts came at the expense of virtually all departments with no comment made as to potential loss in services.
The budget also allocates funding toward watershed prevention efforts, street resurfacing and recreation facility improvements,while debt service will be reduced by about $200,000 in 2012.
Storm cleanup costs, reached $1.2 million. However much of the costs will be reimbursed through FEMA and insurance refunds but the storms impact on taxpayers in 2012 will still be significant.
Village expense increased 5.5% in health care , 9.75% increase at the tax assessor’s office and 6.4% for police salaries .
Village CFO Steven Sanzari told the Patch that $56 of the $131 increase is directly attributed to storm costs and a loss in property values.
Declining property values nationally as well as in Bergen County have lead to record tax appeals with Village appeals increasing 21%. CFO Sanzari looked to counter Councilwoman Walsh’s objections saying that it takes about six months or longer from appeal filings to refunds issued, which leads to a “lag time”The village is currently facing $40 million in assessed valuation exposure with a total of $6 billion in assessed value. Hanging over the Village’s head is the appeal of Ridgewood’s highest assessed property, the large office building across the Duck Pond.
As Yogi Berra would say It is not over until its over , the council has “some leeway” tweaking the budget and can also continue budget discussions until the June 26 public meeting, where residents can speak on the budget.
in the end as long as we do not have a lay off in town. the last lay off hurt the town in man power and the work can not and will not get done. we had no lay off,s in the police and fire dept,s last time.so if we did have a lay off it’ would be in those dept,s end of the story.I looked at all the laws ,and did not see any thing on that a town can or state or county can not lay off a cop or a fire worker.that was all bull shit from the last mayor,sure he was an ex cop,hummmmmm.yea we all know now.
Mr. Sanzari stated that the loss could be up to $1.4 million dollars. And that the Village could borrow more money to pay off the debt. So we would need to borrow money we didn’t collect or give back money we owe. So the taxpayer will pay the debt service on the money they are getting back from their appeal. Mrs. Walsh hit the nail on the head! So much for Paul Aronsohn and his Tiger Team.
well tax people vote to stop spending money we don,t have on shit like fake grass in the past years.we spent mill,s and mill,s not a good thing. the village has buildings that are turning into shit.and road,s bridge,s that need work. no what the past bum,s did vote to spend money on junk and lay off workers.that was a real smart move that hurt the town.the village got very little done in service and new ball field’s..yea great. wake up people and open your mouth.this is the village of ridgewood.
I’ve been in town four years…not going to be another four at this rate. Unless I can get a sweet six-figure, do-nothing job working for the Village, that is!