Tax Increase Proposed in 2012 Manchester Municipal Budget

Manchester property taxes are slated to increase in the fiscal year 2012 municipal budget, said the township's chief financial officer at last night's meeting.

The nearly $31 million budget, which was introduced on first reading Oct. 11 and thus has not yet received any comment from council, proposes a property tax increase of about $52 per year for the average home valued at $194,000, said CFO Diane Lapp. 

This is a tax rate increase of 2.6 cents from the $29.5 million 2011 budget, Lapp said, as a penny on the tax rate raises $407,936.

The increases come as the township deals with rising benefit costs, Lapp said, as they created this year's budget which led property taxes to rise 5.2 cents in 2011.

"Most of the expenses that have increased are due to pension costs and health care costs," she said. 

The total budget comes in at $30,854,672, Lapp said, and the amount to be raised by taxation is $20,552,118. In 2011, that amount was $19.4 million.

Total general appropriation is $25,395,848 and the miscellaneous revenues to offset that is $10,000,302, Lapp said. 

"On the revenues side, we had an increase in our surplus. Our miscellaneous revenues — some did increase while others went down," Lapp said. "They kind of offset each other."

State aid remained flat at $3.2 million, Lapp said, though the Garden State Preservation Trust, which is state aid for open space lands taken off the tax role, was decreased. Lapp said that this funding has been lowered each year and she expects the trend to continue. 

Utility budgets were also presented:

Eastern service area: $2,925,000, eastern sewer: $4,425,000

Western service area: $1,984,000, western sewer: $2,240,000

"On all four of these budgets, it has either remained flat or gone down slightly," Lapp said. "One of the areas that we're a little concerned about is the increase in our cost of sewer flows to the sewer utilities. We'll need to be addressing that to see if we're going to have to increase the sewer charges, but that probably won't happen until the next budget year."

A capital budget was also included in the total budget, though Lapp said that it "does not guarantee" that improvements will be made throughout the township.

A copy of the full proposed budget will be available to the public beginning on Wednesday, Oct. 12, at the municipal complex or Manchester's branch of the Ocean County Library, both located on Colonial Drive, or on the township's website. 

Lapp will discuss the budget more thoroughly during an upcoming public hearing, 6 p.m. on Nov. 14 in the municipal complex courtroom, according to clerk Sabina Skibo.

The budgeting process, officials said, is ongoing and requires months of preparation and meetings.

"We worked very hard on it to keep it as low as we could," said business administrator Elena Zsoldos. 

Council president Craig Wallis thanked the council's finance committee for their continued work on the budget.

"After this one is done, they'll start again," he said. "They spend all year doing this."

Manchester is one of the few municipalities that operates under a fiscal year calendar running from June through July. Administrators said that the township is considering a switch to a calendar year operation.