A year after Medford municipal taxes remained flat, the budget presented to council at last week’s meeting showed a slight increase for taxpayers.
Medford residents got their first peek at the township 2014 municipal budget at the meeting. Township manager Chris Schultz presented the 2014 budget to council and gave a presentation highlighting the basics.
Schultz’s budget featured a 3-cent tax rate increase from last year’s number. The proposed municipal tax would result in an increase of $95.25 for the average assessed home of $328,449.
The proposed tax increase comes one year after council opted to pass a budget with a flat tax in 2013. Last year, Schultz proposed a 3.7-cent tax rate increase during the budget transmission, but council worked to close the gap and pass a budget with no tax increase.
Overall, Schultz’s proposed 2014 budget totaled $20,891,642. This is a 2.7 percent increase over the 2013 version. Schultz attributed the increased budget to factors such as health care, debt service, school resource officer agreements with the local school districts and planned street lighting projects. Schultz cited an increase of $571,815 in health care and payments of $455,260 in debt service.
As far as municipal services, no cuts have been made so far.
“It maintains the current 2013 service level,” Schultz said.
The township is also not helped by a limited amount of revenue coming in. Schultz said the township has no school deferral or utility funding coming in on the revenue side. The budget does include the utilization of a $1.1 million surplus.
“The surplus has started to stabilize,” Schultz said. “We have a little more than last year at the end of the year. So you’re starting to see some of the changes we made in the budget starting to shake down.”
The budget currently projects state aid to remain flat at $199,135, though the final figure is unknown at this time.
“We still know what the impact is going to be from Sandy or this year’s snow,” Schultz said. “The state is running out of snow funding, too. We just don’t know what the state’s going to do.”
Stabilization is something Schultz emphasized during his presentation. He said the township has made strides since the approval of a 25 percent tax increase in 2012 and there has been much more stabilization.
“We’re slowly improving,” Schultz said. “The biggest thing is that debt service. If we can manage it, we may be able to do some really special things here down the road.”
With the budget now in council’s hands, every aspect of it will be looked at in the coming weeks.
Tentatively, council is planning to introduce the budget at its March 18 meeting before it comes up for public hearing and final adoption in April.
The township has emphasized being open about the budget process to the public. Schultz said the full budget workbook, aside from a few items, is available for any member of the public to view. Members of the public are also invited to attend the upcoming budget meetings.
In other news:
• Council discussed introducing an ordinance to create a no parking zone on Tuckerton Road near the JCC Camps. Schultz said the ordinance was requested by JCC and Burlington County as part of the camps site plan. Police Chief Richard Meder said a traffic engineer officer evaluated the situation and said it was very dangerous, with cars unable to see when turning onto the road due to the parked cars.
• Councilman Randy Pace asked council to consider passing a resolution to support the private construction of an Armed Forces Heritage House Museum at the McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst joint base. The proposed museum will provide visitors with a snapshot into the history at the base. Pace said the museum is built with private money, but a voice of support from the township could help to get construction started soon.
• The next Medford Township council meeting is scheduled for March 4 at 7:30 p.m. in the Public Safety Building. Council is also planning to hold separate budget workshops on March 1 and March 8.
