Monday, April 8, 2013
The council unanimously voted to approve the spending plan Monday.
The Chatham Borough Council unanimously approved the 2013 municipal budget during its Monday meeting. Under the spending plan, local taxes on the average Chatham Borough home assessed at $600,000 will rise $79 a year from $3,449 to $3,528 over the year. This includes the library tax and the fees for water, sewer and solid waste. The total budget allows for $13.6 million to run the borough for one full year. The overall tax levy for the borough is $7,540,389, an increase of 1.72 percent over the 2012 levy. The remainder of the funds will be provided by leases, parking fees, state aid and other municipal revenues. The borough passed with a unanimous 5-0 vote and without public comment or further discussion by the council. Councilman John …
Chatham Borough Council President Len Resto will have his last meeting Monday.
The Chatham Borough Council will vote on a resolution honoring one of their own Monday. Chatham Borough Council President Len Resto will resign from his position after Monday's meeting due to a new job which will take him from Chatham to Pennsylvania. The council will vote on a resolution honoring his volunteer efforts to the borough before he resigns. The resolution, as currently drafted in the agenda for the meeting, cites Resto's "expertise and knowledge about insurance," which the borough has utilized on numerous occasions. It also notes "his kindness, compassion and fairness when dealing with residents of the community, visitors and especially the borough employees." After Resto leaves, the local political committee of his party (in …
Thursday, March 28, 2013
The 2013 budget has a tax levy decrease of 3/10 of a cent per $100 of assessed value.
Four members of the Chatham Township Committee unanimously approved the 2013 municipal budget, which calls for a reduced local tax levy that will cut the average taxpayer's bill by $25.50. Mayor Nicole Hagner, Deputy Mayor Robert Gallop and Committee Members Kevin Sullivan and Bailey Brower, Jr. approved the budget. Committee Member Kathy Abbott was not present. Administrator Tom Ciccarone said the only change to the budget since his last presentation on Feb. 28 was a detailed allocation of $175,000 in emergency appropriations. He said he forgot to include the detail of where the funds would go when he submitted the budget to the state, and that all committee members now had the updated form. The budget passed without discussion or public …
Wednesday, March 27, 2013
The committee meets for a public hearing and final adoption of the 2013 budget Thursday.
The Chatham Township Committee is expected to approve a 2013 municipal budget with a lower tax levy from last year when they meet Thursday. The budget calls for a reduced local tax levy from 2012 levels of 3/10 of a cent. For the average home assessed at $750,000, this would mean a tax decrease of $25.50. The 2012 tax rate was at 28.8 cents per $100 of assessed value, for a total average municipal tax of $2,152. If the committee votes to approve the budget as proposed, that amount will fall to 28.5 cents per $100. The amount to be raised by taxes in 2013 will be $8,574,639. The committee already approved the budget on first reading at their Feb. 28 meeting. In 2011 and 2012, the township kept local taxes flat, thanks in a large part to …
Sunday, March 24, 2013
The council meets Monday evening.
The Chatham Borough Council will vote on an ordinance establishing a cap bank as part of the 2013 municipal budget. The cap is the difference between the maximum allowable amount the borough could possibly raise taxes and the amount they actually raise taxes. Under the new budget guidelines passed by Gov. Chris Christie and the state legislature in 2009, the borough can establish a banked cap for that difference and potentially draw on it in the next three years without requiring a vote on the budget. If the ordinance passes, the cap bank will go into effect for the 2013 budget. The council is expected to go into executive session to discuss a lease agreement with PSE&G, who recently revoked a lease allowing the Chatham Borough Community …
Tuesday, March 12, 2013
Impact to average homeowner is $79.
Municipal taxes on the average Chatham Borough home will rise $79 under the terms of a $13.6 million budget introduced at Monday’s Borough Council meeting. The overall tax levy for municipal purposes, $7,540,389, will rise 1.72 percent, Business Administrator Robert Falzarano said, under the 2 percent state-mandated cap. The rest of the budget will be funded by other revenue, including income from leases, parking, fees and state aid. The annual municipal tax bill for a home assessed at about $600,000 will rise from $3,449 to $3,528, Falzarano said. The increase includes the library tax and the fees for water, sewer and solid waste. A public hearing on the budget will be held April 8. The municipal portion accounts for about 22 percent of …
Monday, March 11, 2013
Also, the borough council will vote on whether to sell two municipal properties.
Chatham Borough Administrator Robert Falzarano will introduce the 2013 municipal budget Monday. The budget includes a local tax increase of about $100,000 over 2012, according to the numbers included in the agenda. The 2012 budget numbers and those included in the agenda for 2013 are shown in the table below. Public Lots The Chatham Borough Council will vote on whether to approve two lots of land for sale at public auction when they meet Monday. The two lots, commonly known as 83 Chatham St. and 57 Watchung Ave., were among six lots included in discussions from summer and fall 2012 about whether the lots could and should be sold for development. Upon deliberation and input from residents, five of the lots, including 83 Chatham. St., were …
Sunday, March 3, 2013
The budget is now up for public hearing and final adoption March 28.
The Chatham Township committee unanimously passed their 2013 budget on first reading Thursday evening. The budget calls for a reduced local tax levy from 2012 levels of 3/10 of a cent. For the average home assessed at $750,000, this would mean a tax decrease of $25.50. The 2012 tax rate was at 28.8 cents per $100 of assessed value, for a total average municipal tax of $2,152. If the committee votes to approve the budget as proposed, that amount will fall to 28.5 cents per $100. Administrator Thomas E. Ciccarone said Thursday, "as hard as it may be to believe, I actually made a mistake" in calculating the levy cap calculation. The error happened due to a $144,000 emergency appropriation from 2011 storms which was applied to the 2012 budget…
Sunday, February 24, 2013
The Chatham Borough Council will also discuss overnight parking.
Chatham Borough Administrator Robert Falzarano will give a presentation on the proposed 2013 budget at the council meeting Monday night. Chatham Borough Councilman James Lonergan previously predicted a tax rate increase of between 1.5 and 2.5 percent, caused mostly by declines in the tax base, in state aid and in the reserve for uncollected taxes. "We've tried to make up the difference," Lonergan said. Because the tax rate increase is limited by the state, that difference has usually been made up through user-based fees, such as water and sewer rates. New Ordinances Two ordinances will also be up for a first reading and vote. The first will grant consent for the non-exclusive use of public rights-of-way, and the second will alter the …
Wednesday, February 20, 2013
Borough residents will have to pay a $5 increase to park at the train station.
Chatham Borough Councilman James Lonergan said there will be a slight increase in parking fees in 2014. Presently the only fee increase he announced is to Lots Nos. 1 and 2 at the Chatham NJ Transit station, both in the north and south lot. In 2013 the fee was $420; In 2014, the fee will be $425. Lonergan said he has looked into parking fees in other nearby towns to compareChatham's rates to others. A full presentation is upcoming, Lonergan said, but he believes Chatham's rates are about half of Summit's and are almost identical to Madison's. "Short Hills and Millburn, I believe, were $360 for the first car, $450 for the second," he said. "We are still assessing daily rates." Lonergan will give a full presentation of the 2013 budget at …
Borough Taxpayer
4:06 pm on Tuesday, April 9, 2013
Based on the presentation on the Borough's website, I believe the article should properly read that the average increase for the year (on approx. $600,000 home) is about $79 or an increase for the year from about $3,449 to about $3,528. Of course, many will argue that it is "only" $79. Setting aside that many people's homes are valued in excess of $600,000, the size of the increase is not the … more ›