Boro Council approves $20M budget Lewis: Commercial tax appeals impacted 2008 budget BY LAYLI WHYTE Staff Writer EATONTOWN - The Borough Council approved a $20.1 million 2007 municipal budget at its regular meeting last week. The budget means a tax rate increase for borough property owners of 5.8 cents per $100 of assessed property value, raising the tax rate from 41.4 cents to 47.2 cents. A homeowner with a home assessed at the borough average of $450,000 can expect to see an increase of $261 in municipal taxes. Councilman Theodore Lewis said at the April 11 meeting that the reason for such a large increase in the tax rate can be directly correlated to last year's revaluation, which set off a number of tax appeals by commercial property owners. "In a zero sum game," he said, "if someone gets their taxes reduced, someone else's taxes go up." Lewis said that one-third of the 14 percent increase in the tax rate can be attributed to appeals by commercial property owners. Borough Auditor Robert Oliwa gave a brief presentation on the budget and said that if so many of the tax appeals had not been successful, the increase would have been 3.2 cents per $100 of assessed property value. According to the overview of the budget that Oliwa presented at the council meeting, the borough net taxable valuation decreased by $143.4 million from 2006, due to the tax appeals. "I have worked on this budget quite a bit," he said, "as have the other members of the finance committee. This budget is designed to maintain services. In all the years I have been here on council, Lewis said many people ask for their taxes to be reduced, but no one asks for their services to be reduced." According to Lewis, $9.8 million of the budget, about 48.8 percent, is appropriated for fixed costs, including reserve for uncollected taxes, bonds, lease items and utilities. The remaining $10.3 million is appropriated for what Lewis referred to as changeable costs, including $8.4 million in salaries. "Unless we reduce staff and reduce services," he said, "there's not a lot we can do with this budget." Insurance costs for the borough are up by 9.09 percent, pensions are up 53.89 percent and police salaries are up 3.85 percent, according to the budget. Residents can expect to see the tax rate increase in their next tax bill.