No Tax Hike in 2013 Morris Budget

The Morris County freeholders voted unanimously to approve the 2013 budget Wednesday night. The $311.1 million spending plan is the first in 15 years without a tax increase, as the amount to be raised by taxation — $217.9 million — is stable from 2012. 

Freeholders said they’re happy the process is complete. This zero percent tax increase “gives the families and taxpayers of Morris County the relief they deserve,” said Freeholder Hank Lyon, chairman of the Freeholder Budget Sub-committee, in a release.

The budget cuts expenses by more than $6 million and reduces spending by $2.3 million, while continuing to fund a wide variety of human and social service programs including mental health; substance abuse; emergency assistance; transportation; and aging, disabilities and veterans’ services.

According to Freeholder Director Thomas Mastrangelo, the 2013 budget, which can be viewed online, reduces total expenses by $6.2 million, appropriating $311.1 million, down from last year’s $317.3 million figure.

Mastrangelo, a member of the Budget Sub-Committee, said the freeholders worked extremely hard to ensure the budget reductions and the tax freeze did not have a negative impact on county services.

“The number one goal I set for this year was no increase in property taxes,” Mastrangelo said. “We not only achieved a zero in the taxes needed to operate the county for the first time in 15 years, but we also achieved real property tax relief with a $4 million cut in the Preservation Trust Fund, all while maintaining the same level of county services."

He said the reduction in the Preservation Trust Fund tax will actually result in an estimated 1.7 percent decrease in the overall county tax levy.

"In such difficult economic times, I think most will agree that cutting spending by more than $6 million without sacrificing essential services is quite an accomplishment," Mastrangelo said.

He noted the 2013 budget reflects 63 less county employees than last year, and that the county’s borrowing this year will be $7.7 million less than it was in 2012.

Continuing programs such as providing more than 500,000 meals to the county’s senior citizens and maintaining services at Morris View Healthcare Center was very important to the freeholders, Mastrangelo said.

“We were able to make cuts in areas other than vital social services,” Mastrangelo said. “Because of conservative fiscal management here at the county level and Gov. Christie’s property tax reforms, we were able realize more than $4 million in savings in salaries and pension and health care costs.”

Mastrangelo thanked all of the Freeholders, county managers and county employees for their diligence in crafting the 2013 budget. “We have achieved something that is almost unheard of in New Jersey, a property tax reduction," Mastrangelo said. "I also want the taxpayers of Morris County to know we are already hard at work on the 2014 budget so we can continue delivering on our fiscal conservative policies."

The public hearing portion was brief with only Ted Hussa, former Mayor of Denville, speaking up. He asked, “Does the public know that $95 million of taxpayer money is just sitting in a fund for open space?”

To which the freeholders told him that the public has been made aware of it.

Hussa told Patch that the county should not continue to tax its people when there’s nothing left to buy.

“I did everything in my power, when I was mayor, to get that money back to the taxpayers.”

Hussa told Patch that the county should not continue to tax its people when there’s nothing left to buy. In the county’s 2013 budget presentation, it states that there is a reduction of $3.9 million in Open Space Tax while preserving all aspects of the program and the combined Operating and Open Space Tax was reduced by 1.7 percent. This presentation is attached to this Patch article.

“I did everything in my power, when I was mayor, to get that money back to the taxpayer,” he said. “I’m glad to see that (the county) dropped it an eighth of a cent, but (there should be) a plan as to where the end game is with the purchasing of open space … We’re in a market where passed over unused property, that’s in many cases wetlands and steep slopes, should be going for nothing, very low amounts of money. Yet I see year after year, these properties are demanding a premium. I think there needs to be more oversight as to what these properties are going for."

The 2013 budget also continues to fund public safety services of the Sheriff’s and Prosecutor’s offices, the Correctional Facility, the Office of Emergency Management, the Public Safety Training Academy, the Office of Health Management and its Hazardous Materials Response Team, as well as the county’s 911 Emergency Communication Center that provides emergency dispatch services for 23 municipalities and interoperable communications for all 39 towns in the county.

Funding for the County College of Morris, the School of Technology and the Morris County Park Commission remains at 2012 levels.

Going forward for the next year, the county is concerned with the uncertainty of Medicaid funding for the Morris View Health Care; potential increases in Health Insurance and Pension costs; and interest arbitrator rulings unfavorable to the taxpayer.

For more on the county budget take a look at the county’s presentation attached to this article and a line by line look at the budget can be found here.