Red Bank adopts $20.2M '07 budget
DuPont proposes council contribute to health benefits
BY MELISSA KARSH Staff Writer
Before adopting a $20.2 million municipal budget Monday, the Red Bank Borough Council amended the budget to include $31,704 in grants received.

The municipal tax rate will be approximately 38 cents per $100 of assessed valuation, according to Frank Mason, the borough's chief financial officer. The municipal portion is 25 percent of the average homeowner's overall tax bill, he said.

The budget calls for $8.596 million to be raised through local taxes.

According to Mason, the average home in the borough is assessed at $404,980 and the average municipal tax increase will be $57 for 2007.

The overall tax rate decreased from approximately $3.42 per $100 of assessed valuation to approximately $1.54 per $100 of assessed valuation.

The total value of taxable property in the borough increased as a result of the reassessment from $973 million to $2.2 billion, Mason said. Even though the overall rate was reduced, the total amount of taxes raised increased due to higher assessed home valuations for 2007.

The average homeowner will pay approximately $1,555 in municipal taxes, which is an approximately 3.8 percent increase from 2006. The overall taxes paid by the average homeowner for 2007 will be approximately $6,220.

The council had previously deferred voting on the budget at an April 9 meeting to wait for the state to announce the amount of emergency municipal aid the borough would receive.

While no extraordinary aid was received this year, Borough Auditor David Kaplan, who was present at the Aug. 27 meeting as well as the April 9 meeting, noted only three municipalities received extraordinary aid in Monmouth County.

"What's most important I think is that the budget be adequate to support the needs of the community in this coming year and I think it is," said Kaplan.

Emergency aid from the state is earmarked for property tax relief; last year the borough received $125,000 in emergency aid.

Mayor Pasquale Menna and Councilman John P. Curley agreed that for future financial policy the borough should not anticipate extraordinary aid.

Mason said last year the 2006, average increase for the municipal portion of residents' tax bills was $87. He noted that in 2007 there were no overexpenditures, adding there is a $230,000 saving over the 2006 budget.

"We made some strides this year and we are going to continue to make strides in next year's budget," said Menna.

There was also an amendment to the 2007 municipal budget on the agenda that represented three grants.

The three grants include the 2006 Cool Cities Community Stewardship Grant, Drunk Driving Enforcement Fund- Court and the Over the Limit Under Arrest Grant, which totaled $31,704 to be added to the budget.

All council members present at Monday's meeting voted to adopt the amendment to the budget. As for the adoption of the budget itself, all voted to adopt, with the exception of Curley. Councilwoman Mary- Grace Cangemi also did not vote on either because she was not present at the meeting.

Curley again said there are still some issues he would have liked to see addressed in this budget.

"Going back to zero-based budgeting to rebuild these departments step by step by step and that way no one individual will be given a $10,000 raise while other people at the bottom of the ladder are barely struggling to put bread on the table."

In response, Menna encouraged members of the council as department heads, to start using zero-based budgeting for their own department if they wanted to do so.

"I would really like to see whether or not it results in any demonstrable change from the way we have been doing it from day one," said Menna.

Menna also agreed with another one of Curley's issues and asked the personnel committee to come up with a stringent policy about taking borough-owned vehicles out of town.

Borough residents were still concerned about the mayor and council members accepting health insurance benefits.

"The $60,000 it would take for this health care I think you could perhaps put this money to a better use and give it back to the police department," said Gary Morris, River Street, who had previously requested that the mayor and council no longer accept health insurance benefits paid for by the borough. "You can afford your health care. But stop taking this, it's shameful."

Curley and fellow Republican Cangemi are the only members of council that do not accept those benefits offered by the borough.

"The recommendation is that the mayor and council pay for and contribute to the health insurance benefits just like everyone else does," said Councilman Michael DuPont, who heads the finance committee, Tuesday in an interview. "There has been a policy in place since 1992 but for some reason it wasn't applicable to the mayor and council and we are making it applicable to all borough employees including mayor and council."

DuPont added that he hopes to have a vote on it and pass it.