The Red Bank Borough Council agreed last week to send a resolution to the state asking that the borough’s large number of nonprofit and tax-exempt organizations be taken into consideration when decisions allocating state aid are made.

Councilman Michael DuPont said in a Jan. 28 interview that Red Bank should see no reduction in aid due to its high number of nonprofit and tax-exempt organizations that account for $1.7 million in lost tax revenues for the borough.

“There needs to be recognition that Red Bank has a disproportionate amount of nonprofits. We can’t have our state aid funding cut,” DuPont said during the Jan. 26 Borough Council meeting.

“Rather than cut it, increase it or keep it where it is, but just don’t cut it.”

Chief Financial Officer Frank Mason said that tax-exempt nonprofits comprise 16 percent of Red Bank properties.

Tax-exempt nonprofits amount to approximately $375 million of the borough’s assessed value, added DuPont. Of that $375 million, the borough’s 51 charitable organizations, such as churches, represent $186 million, he said.

According to Mayor Pasquale Menna, Riverview Medical Center is the only nonprofit organization that has annually paid the borough in lieu of taxes to cover expenses incurred by the borough.

Menna said at the meeting that he hopes other tax-exempt properties will follow suit.

“If every tax-exempt property voluntarily contributed, it would take the noose off the neck of the taxpayer,” he said.

DuPont said 182 parcels of land in the borough are the sites of tax-exempt non- profits. Those properties include the Count Basie Theatre, Two River Theater, Visiting Nurse Association of Central Jersey, The Community YMCA, Lunch Break, Kaboom Fireworks on the Navesink!, Parker Family Health Center, and a plethora of religious and educational organizations.

During last month’s council meeting, DuPont explained that the finance committee would develop a “doomsday” budget to put into effect should Gov. Christie follow through on a pledge to cut municipal funding by 25 percent.

“We planned for a difficult financial time in 2010. We asked the directors of each department to reduce their budgets by 15 percent,” DuPont said previously.

DuPont explained that the borough does not collect taxes from nonprofits yet is still required to provide services to them. He said the cuts Christie has spoken about would be devastating to the borough.

The “doomsday” budget assumes a 25 percent reduction in state aid and would involve layoffs, DuPont said last week.

“If we lose 25 percent of our aid, we will be laying off employees and policemen,” DuPont said.

Menna said other towns, including New Brunswick and Montclair, are in the same situation.

“Many of us, not just in Red Bank, are banging our heads with state officials to no avail,” he said.

However, Menna, who said he has met several times with Christie’s chief of staff about the issue, said he’s optimistic that progress will be made this year.

Menna and DuPont anticipate the resolution to be ready by the council’s next meeting on Feb. 8, when it would then be sent to Trenton.

“We’ll be sending it to the Legislature and to Christie,” Menna said.

“It’s a difficult question of where we draw the line on what’s an acceptable and tolerable level of nonprofits and tax-exempt properties in town. We’d like it taken into consideration when they decide on state aid,” he explained.

“I think the state needs to understand that this is a hardship,” DuPont added.

Additionally, the Borough Council unanimously approved a resolution setting a $125,718 salary for newly appointed Police Chief Stephen McCarthy, who was appointed on Jan. 12.

Borough Administrator Stanley Sickels said McCarthy’s salary increase gives him a “slight bump” over what he would’ve earned had he remained a captain.