Bergen County Executive Kathleen Donovan last week called for a proposed budget that would require a near two percent tax increase.
The budget is far from final – the Board of Chosen Freeholders will be reviewing the 181 page document, line by line, for months to come: “It’s her budget to start with, but we will make it into ours after about 27 hearings over the next bunch of months,” David Ganz, Freeholder Chairman and chairman of the budget and finance committee, said.
The budget does not call for any layoffs and calls for increased spending at Bergen Community College and the Vo-Tech and Special Services school (an increase of $800,412 and $707,845, respectively) along with an increase in the size of the county’s surplus fund by $4.7 million, and $2.4 million in debt service.
Donovan’s plans also include around $1 million in savings based off a new contract with the County Police, that is expected to pass muster, giving them smaller raises over a greater number of years than their previous contract. In terms of revenue, the budget projects an increase of more than $1.9 million from real estate fees and about $395,000 more from the sheriff’s office.
“We will probably take the opportunity to utilize the budget to solidify the views of the freeholders about merging,” Ganz said, referring to the long discussed move to combine the police and sheriff departments, a plan which was supported in a 5-1 vote.
The freeholders have stated that the merger plan will save taxpayers between $90 and $200 million over the next 25 years without any layoffs, but Donovan is staunchly opposed to the idea and vetoed it in late October.
Other money saving measures are a result of line by line checks of the budget. For instance, last year the Board of Taxation received a requested amount and didn’t spend a single dollar of it, but have requested the same amount again this year; this is something Ganz said will be cut from the budget.
Ganz also cited a request for $6,000 for stationary and office replies and explained that he would ask for the last year’s bills so he could see how much was actually spent so the budget allocated to that could be more precise.
“There are 5,000 examples that are just like that,” Ganz said, adding that cuts as small as $11 and as large as $2 million have been made to the proposed budgets of past years.
In regards to the tax increase, Donovan has suggested raising it by the maximum amount allowed by the County- a move most county executives tend to make, but the board of freeholders will be playing with the numbers, according to Ganz, to shrink the tax increase as much as possible
Richard Cosgrove, mayor of Fair Lawn who, in early January, stated that once of his goals for the year was easing the tax burden on town residents, understands where Donovan is coming from.
“Although I hate to see taxes increase, as a mayor I understand that in order to meet our obligations and to continue to provide good services and meet needs, it’s necessary,” Cosgrove said, citing the larger than anticipated snow plow and road repair costs this year as a prime example.
By Aliza Chasan
