Borough Budget Passes with $79 Average Tax Increase

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 …

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Borough Tax Levy Stays Under 2% Cap

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 …

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R. Swanson

6:12 pm on Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Only in the public sector are salary increases "mandatory". This is the cost of allowing collective bargaining for public employees and why folks in Wisconsin, for instance, finally woke up. Hopefully there will be the same realization here some day that bargaining with taxpayer funds when the economy isn't growing and tax revenues are stagnant makes no sense whatsoever. Public sector employees, …   more ›

Tax Decrease Proposed in Chatham Township

As currently drafted, the 2013 municipal budget would include a tax levy decrease of 3/10 a cent.

Chatham Township residents may get a break in their municipal taxes this year, albeit a small one. Administrator Thomas E. Ciccarone said Thursday that the municipality has proposed a tax rate decrease 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. In 2011 and 2012, the township kept local taxes flat, thanks in a large part to the same things that have allowed them to lower the tax levy in 2013: shared services, ratables within the township and consolidating positions. Under…

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Question of the Day

What Do You Think of Your Local Tax Bill?

New tax bills came out recently in the Chathams.

Residents of the Chathams recently received their local tax bills, which increased compared to last year. The Chatham Township Committee voted for an Open Space Tax of five cents in April in an effort to keep taxes level, and the Chatham Borough Council passed a budget with a 3.13 tax levy increase, also in April. Chathamites voted to approve the school budget by over 66 percent in April. The school budget included a 2.4 increase in the tax levy. As explained by board members in March, the budget included a 2.7% tax levy increase for borough residents and a 1.8% tax levy increase for township residents. For a $700,000 home, the average tax change would be an increase of $193 for Borough residents and $129 for Township residents. Chatham …

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Library Gets Its Own Tax, But Borough Tax Increase Remains at 3.13%

Statewide legislation determines that libraries will get their own line on property taxes.

The Chatham Borough Council approved a resolution to introduce the municipal budget Monday night. The budget went through some changes since Tammie Kopin, the borough's chief financial officer, first presented it at the March 14 council meeting, the most notable change pertaining to the library tax. Last week, Gov. Chris Christie signed a bill that will give local libraries their own tax funding independent of municipalities. In the Chathams, residents will now see the library as a separate line item on their property taxes, along with schools, municipal taxes and county taxes. In the borough, the minimum library tax amounts to $757,825.24. Another $17,000 was added to the budget for debt service. "We would have had to add $200,000 if we …

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