Council mulls ways to trim 2008 spending plan
BY JENNA O'DONNELL Staff Writer

TINTON FALLS - Borough Council members attended two budget workshops last week in an attempt to trim down Mayor Peter Maclearie's 2008 spending plan before its May 6 introduction.

D

uring the workshop meetings on

April 24 and 26, council members questioned Director of Finance Stephen Pfeffer line by line on the details of the preliminary $20,901,804 budget for 2008.

The budget would increase by $986,716 over last year's budget of $19,915,088. It is supported by a tax levy of $10,317,640.

"Our goal in the 2008 budget was to have a zero increase in municipal taxes," Maclearie said in his remarks prior to the budget discussion.

In light of rising expenses and diminished aid, a zero increase was not possible according to Maclearie.

"We faced the realization that far from seeing a zero increase in municipal taxes, the taxes would instead have to be increased substantially," Maclearie said.

Maclearie identified salaries, health insurance, fuel, and energy charges as costs that increase each year, but stated that the increases had been especially dramatic in the past year.

"We could not possibly have foreseen the dramatic effects that the national economy would have on our budget," Maclearie said. "One major impact was the reduction in state aid of $178,902."

Maclearie said that the increase, which comes to about $49 for the average home in Tinton Falls assessed at $343,683, was due in part to the recent property revaluation in the borough.

"We will continue our efforts to find ways to decrease the tax burden on our residents," Maclearie said, pointing to shared services as one cost-saving opportunity that the borough should pursue.

Council members acknowledged the difficulty of the budget process, but were largely supportive of the efforts of administration during the April 24 meeting.

C

ouncilman Brendan Tobin noted

that many other towns were cutting employees, and he praised administration for holding the line.

"I think we've done an amazing job keeping everything in check here and not cutting services and people," Tobin said. "There's a lot of hard work going on in the background."

Tobin said that, for him, cutting costs would be an ongoing effort.

"My goal is to continue to find ways to save," said Tobin. "It has been constant work and I'm looking forward to continuing to do that as long as I can."

Councilman Gary Baldwin was also in favor of finding more ways to save.

"These are difficult times," Baldwin said. "Cutting spending really is the only way to stay alive. We can't just continue to expand and grow and take that out on the taxpayers."

In the discussion that followed, council members questioned Pfeffer on line items that included staffing costs for the new technology committee, and whether more cost-effective vehicles might be used my municipal employees.

During the second budget workshop meeting two days later, there was some discussion about the omission of benefits for council members from the spending plan.M

aclearie said on Friday that there had been some disagreement over the issue, but that the removal of council's benefits was the right decision.

"I think it's the right thing to do," said Maclearie said.

Maclearie called the meetings a rehash of budget hearings that had taken place in December without council members in attendance.

"We got through it and we'll see what happens," said Maclearie.

The next step in the process will be the introduction of the spending plan at the next council meeting on May 6.