Ridgewood’s municipal budget calls for no new taxes
APRIL 17, 2014 LAST UPDATED: THURSDAY, APRIL 17, 2014, 2:56 PM
BY BY DARIUS AMOS
STAFF WRITER
A preliminary $46.4 million budget presented by senior management and finance officials calls for no new taxes for the average Ridgewood taxpayer, a proposal that if adopted would mark the second consecutive year that village government offered residents a zero percent tax increase.
Based on the spending plan explained Wednesday by Village Manager Roberta Sonenfeld and Chief Finance Officer Steve Sanzari, the average municipal property tax bill would amount to $3,959, a sum determined by the average assessed home value of $688,000. The proposed tax bill is $5 less than the total from last year’s adopted budget.
Sonenfeld cautioned that numbers presented this week could change through continued discussions with department supervisors and governing officials – council members Gwenn Hauck and Bernadette Walsh were unable to attend Wednesday’s special public meeting. A final operating budget summation and review of the 2014 capital expenses is scheduled for April 21, and both spending plans will be introduced by the council on April 23.
“This is just the beginning of the decision phase of the budget,” she said. “But this is also the start of longer-term conversations and longer-term plans for how we want to strategize and how we want to deliver government services going forward.”
– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/news/ridgewood-s-municipal-budget-calls-for-no-new-taxes-1.998476#sthash.exHiJFpP.dpuf
Good news!
Maybe the Board of Ed can ‘take a hint’ and do the same.
this is not good news, we all will pay down the road. o % last year and now this year at 0 % , what is this council up to. to be smart raise it 1 0 % .what is going to happen in 2015 . the tax rate will be 6 %.
If there is more state aid coming back to the village it’s not that bad.
Zero and zero is good. Keep up the pressure.
For too many years they didn’t care what the increase was.
That’s how we ended up with the highest property taxes in the nation.
to # 4 say that to the b o e.
I give the Village Council and the new Village Manager credit for holding the line on municipal taxes. There is still plenty of fat that can be trimmed and hopefully our new Village Manager will make judicious cuts.
The new Village Manager needs to cut taxes and any employee, who has stolen from taxpayers, needs to go to jail, as well as, repaying funds (with interest). Turning a blind eye must end.
If the forensic audit uncovers any additional impropriety, it should be dealt with in the harshest possible terms. Taxpayers should insist on zero tolerance and maximum financial accountability from our village management.
Why would you want your municipal property taxes to go up when it’s not clear that tax increases go to improving services for residents ? The Village portion of the budget grew 3% a year from 2009 to 2012, from $42mn to $46mn, despite a 10% cut to the Village workforce in 2010. All of that growth in the budget went to pay for wages, pension contributions, and heavily subsidized heathcare plans, while the budgets for parks & rec, public works, and sanitation were slashed. Maybe we should rethink how we spend our tax dollars rather than just throwing more money at the problem ?
While there has historically been a strong link between rising property prices and local property taxes, the link has broken down badly when property prices decline. Assessed property values in Ridgewood have declined from $802K in 2008 to $687K in 2013, or -3% per year, and yet the municipal budget grew +3.55% on average between 2008~2012 (2013 was 0%). There are lots of reasons why our property taxes have grown despite declining assessed values (contractual promises, state mandates, cuts in state & federal aid, parking meter theft, etc), but shouldn’t we align our expenses with our revenues ? That’s what every responsible household does, why don’t we expect the same of our public officials ?
Agreed, the BoE needs to get the hint here.