Reader says the Ridgewood municipal is budget is well managed and the BOE budget is where the runaway spending is
Do you want to base your conclusions on the faulty FAC report and ignore the fact that the Village provides more services at a lower municipal mil rate than all of the other towns I referred to in my post as #20 that is fine. None of the towns listed there provide garbage pickup, fully staffed fire services, recreation services for kids and seniors or a sewage treatment facility for their residents, that is a fact, and. How that is a union talking point is beyond me.
You claimed that I am only providing half of the story and I am leaving out the property taxpayer’s perspective,” I am a taxpayer, and have been a taxpayer in Ridgewood for many years. If anything is only providing half the story it’s your FAC report. It only tells half the story since it does not even consider the cost to the residents for the Board of Education (BOE). If your report included the BOE then I would have to agree that the largest portion of the Village Tax bill (BOE) has been increased at an alarming rate and is not sustainable.
How do I arrive at that conclusion? Here is the 2011 Bergen County property tax data showing the town – County – total tax levy – % County Taxes – % School Taxes % – Municipal taxes. This is the latest year available on the NJ.com by the numbers web site. There are 70 Municipalities in Bergen County. Below are 18 municipalities that have an equal or greater percentage of their municipal taxes dedicated to the school budget like Ridgewood. The other 51 municipalities have a lower percentage than Ridgewood dedicated to their school budget and a higher percentage number dedicated to their municipal services. Ridgewood’s municipal tax levy is lower than the other 51 Municipalities in Bergen county and is even below the state calculated average of 29%. You can draw your own conclusions from this data however this data clearly shows that the Village municipal budget is very well managed as contrasted with other Bergen County Communities and the overall state average. It also indicates that BOE budget is out of control and unsustainable.
Town – County – tax levy – % County – % BOE – % Municipal
Ridgewood Village Bergen $130,248,198.77 10% 65% 25%
Closter Borough Bergen $42,254,879.89 11% 65% 25%
Demarest Borough Bergen $27,942,242.71 10% 68% 21%
Franklin Lakes Borough Bergen $62,617,871.06 14% 69% 17%
Glen Rock Borough Bergen $59,596,958.87 9% 70% 21%
Harrington Park Borough Bergen $21,819,633.46 10% 69% 22%
Hillsdale Borough Bergen $41,482,921.52 10% 70% 20%
Midland Park Borough Bergen $27,063,090.79 10% 65% 25%
Oakland Borough Bergen $54,044,047.52 9% 65% 26%
Old Tappan Borough Bergen $29,120,723.48 13% 71% 16%
Park Ridge Borough Bergen $35,601,710.17 10% 66% 24%
Ramsey Borough Bergen $72,773,675.42 11% 67% 22%
River Edge Borough Bergen $43,666,177.86 9% 65% 26%
River Vale Township Bergen $43,739,302.11 10% 68% 22%
Tenafly Borough Bergen $86,534,847.47 10% 65% 25%
Upper Saddle River Borough Bergen $46,413,818.76 13% 69% 18%
Waldwick Borough Bergen $37,118,536.98 9% 68% 23%
Westwood Borough Bergen $40,321,173.87 11% 60% 30%
Woodcliff Lake Borough Bergen $38,129,520.22 12% 66% 22%
Statewide total $25,643,843,500.01 18% 52% 29% of 567 municipalities
https://www.nj.com/news/bythenumbers/
This information confirms that the Ridgewood municipal is budget is well managed and the BOE budget is where the runaway spending is since the Ridgewood BOE takes a higher percentage of the total tax bill than 51 other Bergen county municipalities. The FAC report ignores this fact, and therefor is even more faulty than I originally thought.
This information confirms that Ridgewood is part of a group of generally high performing school districts. I’d rather spend my tax dollars on education than crosswalk “stings”.
We don’t need a 35 comment thread arguing basis points of CPI to know that village municipal contracts are accruing unfunded liabilities (pensions, healthcare, and even sick days) at an alarming rate. Even if we take your flawed statistic at face value your point is that since we’re not as bad as other towns we shouldn’t do anything about it?
I’m perplexed as to how this page can simultaneously tout Steve Lonegan’s slash-and-burn-government-to-lower-taxes campaign and at the same time go out of its way to give a voice to a lone poster arguing for municipal government that costs more than it needs to. There must be something else at work here that I’m missing.
I agree that the Municipal budget has tightened the reins on spending somewhat, but Brogan and the BOE are the ones we have to keep an eye on. Under Brogan’s watch are BOE budget has mushroomed – even with state mandates being considered. How people keep voting for her and the others is beyond me
Ok #2, you made the following statements, can you back them up with facts, or are these just your opinions?
village municipal contracts are accruing unfunded liabilities (pensions, healthcare, and even sick days) at an alarming rate….this is based on what? , is the Village agreeing to contacts giving our employees better pensions, healthcare and more sick days than other municipalities in New Jersey? Where can I find that information?
Even if we take your flawed statistic ……Where and what is flawed with the above N.J. State provided statics?
Since all the other towns in NJ think it’s right to give senior workers over 6 weeks vacation that’s the ridiculous standard we have to set for our community? Are you kidding?
We’re going broke but not as quickly as the rest of the state? That’s your point?
We can reduce the BOE budget easily.
Give the employees bare bones medical coverage (vs Cadillac plans). Let them pay for the gold card plans with the low deductibles.
Increase class size to 30 students. It worked well in the past.
Decrease management positions at the board of Ed.
Well then #6 go ahead and start doing it, get yourself elected to office and do something about it instead of anonymously castigating anything and everything that’s going on from behind a keyboard.
Most of the towns are regional high schools not counted in your figures.
#5, what is your point? Are you saying that every town in every county in the entire state of New Jersey is accruing unfunded liabilities (pensions, healthcare, and even sick days) at an alarming rate? If that is true why are you spending your time posting on this blog? You should be writing to the Governor in Trenton and advising him of your concerns.
Tax Fact.
Since 1994 the BOE portion of my tax bill has increased by 72%
Since 1994 the Municipal portion of my tax bill has increased by 57.44%
Draw your own conclusions.
Some people on this blog only post about municipal budget because they have school aged children in the Ridgewood School system and don’t mind their taxes going up to educate their kids for the next 12 years.
#9, that implies that your overall property taxes have increased over 60% since 1994. The average tax bill in Ridgewood is now over $16,240 vs Bergen County average $8,500, with an average home value of $687K. As you’ve pointed out, NJ already has the highest property taxes as a % of assessed values in the entire country. Maybe we pay less than some surrounding communities and get more services, but we still pay more in Ridgewood at 2.36% than the state average. These are facts. The BoE runs their own budget, so take it up with Ms. Brogan if you have an issue with them. The point on the municipal portion of our budget that should worry you is that much of that growth in your bill has gone to pay for mandated wages & cost of living increases, pensions & healthcare; not towards Village services, roads & infrastructure. Wages for public safety, plus pensions & insurance were 42% of the Village portion of the budget in 2001. Those three items now take up 51% of our 2013 budget. These are not facts we should be proud of.
The FAC advises the Council on the Village budget and finances. Their mandate has nothing to do with the BOE, which has a separate governing body. That’s why we elect Council members and BOE members separately, they run separate budgets. Maybe you should ask the BOE to produce a similar report ?
Some people on this blog only post about municipal budget because they have a +$100,000 pension from the Village, plus healthcare coverage for life, and don’t mind taxes going up to make sure their kids get the same deal. Why spend on education when we can give away 4% annual wage increases and $400 family health plans ?
# 11 – So if I understand you correctly only Ridgewood’s employees salaries and benefits are unsustainable and all the other towns in NJ are doing ok. How is that possible. Aren’t our employees being paid and receiving the same benefits as employees in other towns?
If you read the news the whole STATE of NJ is unsustainable. That’s why more people move out than move in.
I didn’t see you post your name DICKHEAD.
Typical dodge by a municipal hack – trying to start a knife fight about who gets more value for their money, Ridgewood or Lodi; meanwhile the state’s finances are a house on fire about to implode. We already have the highest property taxes in the country and the worst state finances… so let’s throw more at a broken system that will only get worse !
Well see #13 If you retire from the Village and still have kids in the school system they must have started late. Nice try. I would think that these retires don’t have kids in school and their pensions in part are paying the same taxes you do and pay for your kids for the 12 years you are going to be here. Most retires take their pension and go to Florida.
jeal·ou·sy
noun \ˈje-lə-sē\
: an unhappy or angry feeling of wanting to have what someone else has
A competent and self-confident person is incapable of jealousy in anything. Jealousy is invariably a symptom of neurotic insecurity.
Robert A. Heinlein
I think we have a solution.
Tax pensions EARNED in NJ in the public sector even if the retired employee moves out of state.
The NJ taxpayers paid them the money, and they should be required to spend it in the state.
If they don’t like it, don’t move to FLA with the money you ‘earned’ (umm received is a better word ) from ‘working’ (umm putting in your time is a better description) here.
So typical. THey milk the state of NJ for pensions, benefits, and retirements..then take it out of NJ to spend elsewhere.
un·sus·tain·a·ble [uhn-suh-stey-nuh-buhl]
adjective
not sustainable; not to be supported, maintained, upheld; not capable of continuing at the same rate or level
There you go #21. As an retire from the village I could not agree with you more. That’s why I shop and support this town as much as possible. As you know there a lot of retires that don’t live here but still live in N.j are you ok with that?
Thanks for paying your taxes to help educate my kid. Do you thank tax payers every time you visit a doctor ?
In 2010, Ridgewood ranked 3rd highest in Bergen County in employees making more than $100,000 with 70 employees or 24.4% of the Village workforce compared to our neighboring communities of Glen Rock at 12.6%, Midland Park at 2%, Ho-Ho-Kus at 1.6% and Westwood at 2.6%. Ridgewood is only one of four municipalities in Bergen County with a full-time Fire Department and 67% of Firefighters (28/42) had base salaries over $100,000 in 2011. The median for Ridgewood FD was $118,290. 80% of Ridgewood Police (33/41) had base salaries over $100,000 in 2011. The median for Ridgewood PD was $128,239. Annual vacation benefit for Ridgewood employees can grow up to a maximum of 31 days, excluding compensatory time off, sick days, and other forms of paid leave – this compares with 13 days for the median full-time worker in the U.S. in 2011. Qualified retirees (25 years of service for police & fire) are eligible for pension (65% of compensation prior to retirement) and medical benefits (at no cost) for life. Upon death, the pension and benefits accrue to the retirees spouse for his or her life. The number of public retirees in NJ receiving over $100,000 in pension payments increased 28% in 2011, including 6 retirees from Ridgewood Village departments receiving over $634,000 per year (an average of over $105,000 each), excluding health benefits, according to New Jersey
Watchdog.org.
I think that if you move to Ridgewood NJ to educate your kids for 12 years then you and them should not be able to move out of NJ . Let give back to all the taxpayers that put your kid through school. Your taxes alone will not pay for it. Hows that sound COMRADE
K-12 is 14 years. Are you suggesting we restrict constitutional rights #26 ? Wow.
#11 is attempting to gain support for his personal agenda which is class warfare. Notice he keeps focusing only on the municipal workers and chooses to ignore or deflect any discussion of the BOE for some unexplained reason. He must be one of the architects of the faulty FAC report and he knows that if that report is discredited his name is directly associated with it. Like a broken record he keeps repeating the same lines over and over. The fact is our employees receive pay that is comparable to what other communities are paying. Sure some towns pay less for their police, and other towns pay more. Some towns have volunteer firefighters, the village chose a long time ago to have a paid fire department. The fact is the Village is not paying our employees excessively more than other towns or giving our employees better benefits or pensions than other towns are giving to their employees, so logically if Ridgewood budget is as #11 says, unsustainable from a financial perspective wouldn’t every towns budget be unsustainable from a financial perspective?
Per student per year. BERGEN RIDGEWOOD VILLAGE3 $16,181 .
I pay for my own healthcare, not the government.
The deadbeats on public assistance should be saying thank you. I pay for your kid. I don’t have any in these schools. Never did.
No #27 But if you our going to limit one group as 21 suggested, using their logic then we should also limit others.
So live in HO-HO-KUS #29 and stop complaining about school taxes in Ridgewood, problem solved
Why stop with municipal government employees pay. Shouldn’t everyone’s pay be regulated and voted on by the public? And while we are at it lets set a maximum amount that one person can earn or receive in a bonus in any given year. No one needs more than $150,000 a year to live a comfortable life in the United States. No more million dollar bonuses for the financial sector workers. No more multimillion dollar salaries or contracts for anyone. And everyone should have exactly the same benefits! And as President Obama has suggested no one should have more than 2 million dollars in a retirement account IRAs – 401Ks or anything else. This is heading down a very slippery slope everyone…..
#30, I pay for my own healthcare, not the government.
No you don’t pay for your own health care. The people that support your employer by purchasing the product your employer sells is paying for your health care!
Try telling the truth for a change!
I graduated in 1976 and have been paying for other peoples kid ever since never put a kid through public school.
I asked
So if I understand you correctly only Ridgewood’s employees salaries and benefits are unsustainable and all the other towns in NJ are doing ok. How is that possible. Aren’t our employees being paid and receiving the same benefits as employees in other towns?
you Replied,
If you read the news the whole STATE of NJ is unsustainable. That’s why more people move out than move in.
Really, so one guy, posting anonymously here, who made a report to the village says the whole state is unsustainable. And none of the CFOs or municipal managers in the over 566 communities know better than this one guy. Yea, right, how stupid do you think people are?
Bingo ! Although > 24% of our municipal employees did make more than $100,000 in 2010 vs. 12.6% for Glenrock, so we do pay more. 61/70 of those were either RPD or RFD in 2010.
I AM the employer. I OWN the business. I PAY the bills.
Get it now simpleton? Don’t forget to supersize my fries the next time.
I’m glad to hear I’m not the only one.
I have been subsidizing these people’s offspring for years.
Also never had any kids in the system.
These bigmouths should be thankful we are here subsidizing them.
If we move a family with logs of kids will buy my 5 bedroom house and fill the schools.
These dummies don’t realize the best way to keep taxes from rising exponentially is to encourage empty nesters, singles, and couples without children to stay here.
Keep raising the school budget and when we move…the taxes will skyrocket.
Be careful what you loudmouths wish for.
Wow, are you serious #11 ? The public sector unions have been conducting class warfare for decades now with full time lawyers and lobbyists. They’ve clobbered property tax payers in NJ, which is why we have the highest taxes as a % of assessed value in the U.S. The median salary for Ridgewood FD was $118,290 in 2011, when the median for Ridgewood PD was $128,239. This compares with Ridgewood median household income at $136,231 as of the 2010 Census. However, those salary figures don’t include the multi-million dollar pensions and almost free healthcare for life we give retirees and their spouse – giveaways which have been made in exchange for little or no contribution from municipal employees until the current CBAs and NJ P.L. 2011 Chapter 78, which requires public employees (e.g. teachers, police, fire) to pay towards the cost of their health plans effective June 28, 2011. Given many high wage municipal employees retire when they reach 25 years of service, we have many years of pensions & healthcare coverage to pay for given the average life expectancy in the U.S of 78.7 years based on 2010 data. Class warfare has been waged by public sector unions, and they’re winning. So now taxpayers start questioning the cost of all of these promises we’ve made, and you call it class warfare ? Please.
I suggest young people watch this N.Y.U. presentation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbgIiAnpcPc
Maybe they can show this at RHS ?
Anonymous:
#30, I pay for my own healthcare, not the government.
No you don’t pay for your own health care. The people that support your employer by purchasing the product your employer sells is paying for your health care!
Try telling the truth for a change!
I AM the employer. I OWN the business. I PAY the bills.
Get it now simpleton? Don’t forget to supersize my fries the next time.
Yea so your the employer, without paying customers buying whatever it is that your selling you CAN”T PAY your bills.
Get it now Jackass? Now go to the dry cleaners and pick up my suits and try not to drop them this time.
I’m shocked that younger residents aren’t up in arms about all of these people suggesting we need to raise property taxes to fulfill promises already made to the old timers by the old timers. So the old timers have paid on average +2% of assessed values for 40 years and now they want the next generation to pay 3% to finance municipal and BOE largess ? If 2% is so immoral, why don’t you give back some of your gains of the last 40 years by paying more than younger residents ? From now until 2050, the Census Bureau projects that the 18-64 working age population is only going to grow 17%. Seniors will grow 102% during that time. Right now, there are 4.8 workers supporting each retiree. By 2030, that number will be 2.9 and by 2050 it will be 2.4. So how about raising taxes on capital gains, dividends and carried interest – now hugely weighted to the wealthy and elderly ? Rich people are the ones who own stocks and bonds. So basically you have a 35-year-old plumber paying a 39.5% federal rate vs. some 65-year-old coupon clipper worth 4-5X as much and paying a 20% rate; that’s outright theft and wealth transfer from young to old. It’s It’s generational warfare: wealth transfer that benefits old timers at the expense of the young.
Agreed, cut paid vacation to 15 days a year and use it or lose it after two years.
Right you are 39, but that would require forward thinking outside the box so to speak.
#44 paid vacation can only be carried from 1 year to the next it’s civil service law I nj.
Wow, are you serious #40 ?
Are you going to blame the public sector unions for your high salary, I doubt it? And I am sure you will figure a way to blame the public sector unions for the runaway real estate prices in Ridgewood, right? Maybe you would be willing to sell your house at a loss of 50% when you move to help stem the insane unsustainable cost for homes in New Jersey. Oh and I forgot those the public sector unions must be responsible for the multi-million dollar bonuses given to people in the financial industry who, by the way, caused the collapse of the nations economy, I am sure the public sector unions caused that too. Please, you clearly have a vendetta. You want something real to worry about check out the National Debt, that number should really concern you, and in case you didn’t know the debt ceiling was just raised again, now there is something to be concerned about.
Apparently you have internet access at the fryolater. Some businesses don’t operate like the fast food place where you work at the drive up window.
Some of us can make a living without leaving our home and punching a time clock like you foul mouthed simpletons. Get it now jackass?
Since there seems to be quite a bit of ‘venom’ from the pro-union mouthpiece,
lets set a few facts straight.
Unions cause inflation. When they are representing those whose skills do not warrant pay increases, they force businesses to cave into pressure when they threaten to strike. That forces businesses to raise prices to pay those who do not deserve a raise.
They use the same strikes to force the company to provide Cadillac health plans. Company is forced to raise prices.
Public sector unions cause taxes to increase. The union members in NJ simple go to ‘binding arbitration’ and arbitrator awards ‘parity’ with the most recent high paying contract. This is why we have overpaid police in NJ.
Teachers unions threaten strikes. THey bully parents like they did in Ridgewood by refusing to write letters of recommendation for students applying to college. A pure thug tactic.
Let the free market rule. There are lots of people willing to line up for these jobs. That’s why people are moving out of the union labor dominated states. THe northeast, rust belt mid west are in a decline.
Economy is rocking and rolling in Texas, the Carolinas, and places where unions are not welcome.
Its simple. If your skills were good, you would not need a union to strong arm your private or public sector employer.
#48 said, Apparently you have internet access at the fryolater. Some businesses don’t operate like the fast food place where you work at the drive up window.
Some of us can make a living without leaving our home and punching a time clock like you foul mouthed simpletons. Get it now jackass?
Lets see, you don’t work in an office, you stay at home all day and you don’t have a product or customers. Ohhh, I get it your a Moocher!! You live off the backs and hard work of others. That’s called welfare dummy! Hey good thing it’s close to the end of the month, isn’t that when Uncle Sam puts more money on your EBT card? Better get off the computer now your favorite TV show is about to come on……