photo by Boyd Loving
An important budget message from Mayor Susan Knudsen:
Dear fellow Ridgewood residents,
Last summer the Village of Ridgewood began working on this year’s 2021 municipal budget. Unlike other municipalities, Ridgewood engages in in a robust and transparent budget process with each department director required to prepare an annual budget. The Village Manager, CFO, and Treasurer work diligently alongside Department Directors to ensure budgets meet Village standards without overburdening taxpayers.
Individual department budgets are presented to Village Council during public meetings throughout February and March. Each Department Director takes the time to recap the previous year’s activities, including meeting goals and objectives while outlining challenges.
2020 has resulted in several challenges for the Village. The biggest is the significant loss of revenue due to Covid19 – Ridgewood has long been able to offset taxes through a variety of revenue streams. My years on Village Council, since 2014, along with my previous time on the Village Board of Adjustment (2010-2014) have made me keenly aware of the importance of these revenue streams as they relate to municipal taxes.
The 2020 revenue shortfall has been somewhat mitigated with the use of allowable 3 year averaging of revenue permitted by the State. Utilization of this method has provided stabilization to fund the proposed 2021 budget. Fixed costs and contractual obligations are driving the increase in anticipated costs, resulting in a proposed municipal tax increase of 4.7%, translating into a $204 increase on the average home. As a reminder, the municipal portion of each tax dollar is 26% and includes the Ridgewood Public Library tax.
Village Council members vowed to continue working to find ways to offset and mitigate the 4.7% increase. Today, after reviewing several budget items and identifying a potential offset, I worked with Village CFO Robert Rooney along with our auditor Bud Jones to determine if the item could be used to further offset the overall increase by .9%. We are preparing the details and I will be bringing this information to our next Village Council meeting, to be held on March 24th, for Village Council consideration. In the meantime, I will continue to research any and all options.
Additionally, it has been reported that the Village will be receiving federal stimulus funds. We are reviewing the timing of fund availability to determine how best to proceed. The State of NJ may delay the budget statutory deadline to allow municipalities to adopt more real-time budgets incorporating stimulus dollars. I will keep everyone updated on the details moving forward.
I am deeply concerned about the ongoing spread of misinformation regarding this budget and other Village matters. I urge residents to monitor my page for updates and to refrain from relying on budget posts not generated from official sources. Sadly, some are instilling fear without sharing all the facts and details. Furthermore, a recent letter to the editor by a former councilman, also shared on local social media pages, suggests one of the drivers for a 2021 tax increase is “the Village Clerk’s office plan(s) on hiring a full-time (from part-time) employee to handle all the litigation and OPRA requests being received…” In the letter the former councilman asks himself “why?’ In fact, that change occurred last year in 2020 while the former councilman was still serving his term on Village Council. Additionally, the Village Clerk’s office does not process litigation requests.
Again, the best way to counter this misinformation is to pay attention and to monitor official Village sources/pages for the most accurate information pertaining to Village government.
Thank you for taking the time to read and especially for your patience while we work through these budget challenges. As always, thank you for your continued support.
Stay safe everyone, have a wonderful weekend, and enjoy the beautiful weather.
Best always,
Mayor Knudsen
Hope she can budget some funds for school HEPA filtration.
anonYMOUS, the school-age population is (still) not impacted in any meaningful way by the Covid-19 virus. They ARE impacted by isolation, anxiety, depression, suicide, diminished opportunity due to deficient learning from ineffective distance programs, etc. They don’t need HEPA filters, they just need to get back in the classroom full-time w/ reasonable precautions as already implemented and demonstrated to be effective in supermarkets, big box stores, restaurants, etc. etc. etc. HEPA filters is just another in a series of canards forwarded by the despicable teachers’ unions to avoid full-time return to the classroom.
Do people not understand that +4.7% on 26% is a smaller increase in $ as opposed to: an automatic +2% increase on 74% of the budget – the school budget, that so many people elected not to Vote on. These will probably be the first people in line to complain about the Village budget going up. (Not that I’m advocating for that either).
To Truth over Lies above, FYI this past week between March 8th and 12th there has been THIRTY FIVE positive COVID 19 cases within the Ridgewood school system, including at least 20 at RHS. This is by far the most positive week over week increase in positive cases since the virus began to invade our community. You don’t know what the heck you are talking about; these kids are not isolated as you suggest, they are being infected by walking around in and around school property.Historically, why do you think that there is 1 HEPA filter installed near the nurse’s office that is vented directly to the roof. Hint!! It is to stop a sick child from spreading sickness x, y, or z to other students during a normal season in which any number of previously known air born virus/bacteria have found their way into a school building. HEPA 5 filters are the best way to protect the school age children so that they can remain healthy and learn in a in person environment. And yes, the filters are a reasonable precaution so that the kids are not anxious or depressed.
FYI this past week between March 8th and 12th there has been THIRTY FIVE positive COVID 19 cases within the Ridgewood school system, including at least 20 at RHS. This is by far the most positive week over week increase in positive cases since the virus began to invade our community. You don’t know what the heck you are talking about; these kids are not isolated as you suggest, they are being infected by walking around in and around school property.Historically, why do you think that there is 1 HEPA filter installed near the nurse’s office that is vented directly to the roof. Hint!! It is to stop a sick child from spreading sickness x, y, or z to other students during a normal season in which any number of previously known air born virus/bacteria have found their way into a school building. HEPA 5 filters are the best way to protect the school age children so that they can remain healthy and learn in a in person environment. And yes, the filters are a reasonable precaution so that the kids are not anxious or depressed.
anonYMOUS, please muzzle your hysteria. People who can interpret data are sick of listening to Chicken Littles like yourself shriek and rend your clothes in direct contradiction of the mountain of evidence that kids are not significantly impacted by Covid. “Positive cases” are not the problem. Covid cases that result in hospitalization and death are. When you locate scientific evidence that shows that Covid is more detrimental to kids than the hype, fear-mongering and education-inhibiting policies spread by people like you, come back and present it here. Until then, plz. stay in your house with six masks on and 14 HEPA filters running 24/7. Time for the rest of us to stop listening to the stooges of the teachers unions and their endless reasons not to get kids back in the classroom full-time.
This is not the teachers union, I am a parent who wants the kids back in school for a full time in person summer school session in order to make up for the loss of education our kids endured this past year. I doubt the Ridgewood teachers union wants extra work. Positive cases of students do cause death, that death being to a parent, or grandparent of the kid that is infected.
This is clearly and 100% the teachers union.
Everyone knows it.
It’s settled science.
folks just to be clear the Village Council has nothing to do with the school budget
James, the money that our government is granting to the town includes a provision to use a portion of it for school reopening activities. So if the BOE lobbies for some of the Biden Relief plan dollars from the Village Council to provide for school enhancements to combat the virus, it is a valid request. FYI, a lot of parents have already inquired about this potential.