Almost nine months into the fiscal year, the Secaucus Town Council passed the $44.29 million 2009 municipal budget Wednesday night. It’s up from $42.9 million in 2008.
Homeowners will now pay $1.14 more in local property taxes each year for every $1,000 of property owned, 17 cents more than the 97 cent tax increase that was proposed last month when the budget was introduced. Since the town assesses the average Secaucus home at $165,000, the $1.14 increase means that the average homeowner will pay $188 more per year to support the town’s budget.
The $1.14 increase is just for Secaucus taxes. Taxpayers also pay an amount to the county and another to the schools, all of which are added together in their quarterly bills. This year residents will pay an additional 27 cents per $1,000 of property owned to the county and 36 cents more to the Secaucus School District.
Health care a big expenditure
Not surprisingly, rising health insurance premiums for full-time employees are a major expenditure for Secaucus, just as for other municipalities and companies in the private sector.
“We have got to begin to get our arms around [health insurance costs].” – John Shinnick
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“We have got to begin to get our arms around this, because it is just going to get worse if we don’t,” Councilman John Shinnick said last Monday at one of the council’s workshop meetings.
There are approximately 200 fulltime employees who get health coverage through Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey. The governing body has asked Town Administrator David Drumeler to explore cheaper options that might be available, such as a health care joint insurance fund.
Since many of the town’s workers are covered by labor agreements, any switch to a different health care provider will have to wait until current labor contracts expire. However, there might still be additional opportunities for cost savings even before contracts are renegotiated. In an interview after the budget passed, however, Drumeler also noted that some employees have signed up for health plans that are not economical.
“That’s an educational process,” he said. “We have our health benefits professional come in every year to educate our employees, because we could realize savings even within the plan we have now.”
Scuttled housing plan created $1 million hole
Members of the governing body, who got their first glimpse of the municipal budget last month, held frequent workshops to pore over specific line items in the budget before a final vote.
Last week, the council found itself scrambling to close a $1 million hole in the budget after a plan to sell an acre of town property to the Secaucus Housing Authority was voted down. The property sale was unanimously rejected, but the council then had to make up for this lost income.
The $1 million deficit was closed through a variety of strategies.
Three of six new police officers the town planned to hire this year will now be hired in 2010. The town will take $185,000 out of surplus and apply it to this year’s spending plan. New revenues – $50,000 from the Recreation Center and $90,000 from the parking taxes generated at the train station – were added to the budget. A handful of other cuts, plus the tax increase, allowed the council to close the $1 million gap.
Resident Sam Maffei, one of only two residents who spoke at the council meeting, was angered that the amendment that detailed how the council closed the budget gap was distributed Wednesday night and didn’t allow the public much time to review the proposal.
“The taxpayers have a right to know what the amended budget is,” Maffei said. “I’m questioning the time element.”
Town Chief Financial Officer Margaret Barkala explained that the council is allowed to amend a budget that has been introduced, and is only required to advertise the amendments 30 days in advance if an appropriation is changed by more than 10 percent or tax revenues are changed by more than 5 percent. Neither was the case with the 2009 budget.
Earlier start in 2010
The lateness of the budget and the need to start the 2010 budget process sooner were themes sounded by most members of the governing body Wednesday. The 2009 budget was introduced and passed a month later than the 2008 budget. Part of the delay can be attributed to financial discrepancies in the Tax Collectors Office that were first uncovered around February or March. The discovery of these discrepancies led to a months-long investigation that took Barkala and the town’s auditors away from their budget preparation work.
The arrest of former Mayor Dennis Elwell in July created another distraction and delay since the council had to name an acting mayor to serve out the rest of his term.
But the Independent Town Councilmen – John Bueckner, Michael Gonnelli, and Gary Jeffas – all pointed out that they had been asking for budget meetings since the spring.
“I for one am not very happy about adopting a budget in September,” Bueckner said. “I’ve been asking for budget expenses since April, and for various reasons, which I won’t get into, we didn’t get them. Nobody likes to put in a tax increase, but when you’ve spent almost nine months of your budget your hands are tied as to what you can do with three months left.”
Gonnelli added, “This is a budget I’m not happy with, I’m disturbed with, and one I feel I had no say in. I really don’t think we made any cuts. The only cut we made was deferring the police hiring until next year. I think what we have to do going into next year is look at real cuts. That’s the only way we’re going to be able to keep a stable tax rate.”
Shinnick agreed that additional cuts could have been made, but noted, “it’s important not to overlook the fact that we’ve tried to maintain the services that the people of this town are accustomed to, and the reason we all live here.”
Similarly, McAdam tried to put the $1.14 tax hike into some perspective.
“I called different towns and I asked them what their increases were going to be, and most towns are having increases, a lot more than we’re having,” she stated. “And they don’t have as many services as we have.”
Mayor Richard Steffens has already made a commitment to begin the 2010 budget process in mid-October and is in the process of putting together a Finance Subcommittee that will be comprised of Drumeler, Barkala, one Independent from the council, one Democrat from the council, and himself.
E-mail E. Assata Wright at awright@hudsonreporter.com.