Community Corner

Committee to Discuss Farming Issue, 2012 Budget

Subcommittees to give annual reports.

The has listed the market garden ordinance as a discussion item for Thursday night's meeting.

did not see and the , which has been a The Master Plan prioritizes both the predominant single-family homes throughout the township, as well as what farmland the township has left.

The committee now has time to review the ordinance with the Planning Board's changes and decide if they wish to introduce it Thursday or at a future meeting.

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If it is introduced Thursday, it will not be adopted until the committee's next meeting.

Also on Thursday, Township Administrator Thomas E. Ciccarone will introduce the 2012 municipal budget.

Find out what's happening in Chathamwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

State aid for the township has not yet been announced, so Ciccarone said "for planning purposes" he drafted the budget using the same amount of aid from 2011. "I haven't seen anything to suggest there would be much of a change in that," Ciccarone said.

The township finished 2011 with a surplus of $2,746,000, and "the draft budget [as of the beginning of February] is using $1.9 million of that," Ciccarone said.

The amount of funds raised from the local tax levy will probably rise by about $330,000 over the amount raised in 2011, Ciccarone said, and is expected to be within the two percent tax cap and its allowable exceptions.

The township raised $7,573,840 through local property taxes in 2011. If Ciccarone's estimate is correct, the total raised by local taxes in 2012 will be $7,903,840 and the tax levy will rise by 1.04 percent.

Of that $330,000, Ciccarone said $144,000 is due to emergency appropriations from 2011.

"We are expecting to get a reimbursement from FEMA for up to 75 percent of that," Ciccarone said. If the funds come in before the budget passes, it will be worked in to the 2012 budget. Otherwise the funds will go toward the 2013 budget.

The budget also takes into consideration reductions in the pension funds for municipal and police employees. "Health insurance is our biggest increase, that's up about $160,000," Ciccarone said.

The committee meets at the on Thursday at 7:30 p.m. The full agenda can be found attached to this article.


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