City proposes $41.8M budget, up by $3.4M Taxes on average home would rise $338 per year BY CHRISTINE VARNO Staff Writer LONG BRANCH - - The City Council introduced a $41.8 million municipal spending plan last week, which could increase the tax rate by 7 cents if approved. The budget, which represents a $3.4 million increase over last year's municipal budget of $38 million, was introduced by unanimous council vote at the April 24 council meeting. A public hearing and adoption of the budget is scheduled to be held on May 22 at 8 p.m. at City Hall on Broadway. At the council workshop meeting held prior to the municipal meeting, City Attorney James Aaron explained that residents will have a four-week period to study and review the budget prior to the public hearing where questions and concerns can be addressed. He added that copies of the budget are available upon request at the city clerk's office. For the average homeowner in Long Branch whose home is assessed at $483,650, taxes would be increased by approximately $338 annually if the budget is adopted by council. "For an average homeowner who's paying some $2,558 in taxes for city operations, it really works out to less than $50 a week," said Chief Financial Officer Ronald Mehlhorn in an interview after the meeting. "I don't mean to minimize it," he said, "but it is only $50 a week for police, fire, garbage, recycling, snow removal and all the other everyday city operations." The city's new tax rate, under the proposed budget, is $52.9 cents per $100 of assessed property value, according to Mehlhorn. Last year's tax rate was 93 cents per $100 of assessed valuation, according to Mehlhorn, who explained that after the recent citywide revaluation, the total value of all taxable properties in the city more than doubled from $2.5 billion to $5.2 billion. The new assessments were used to determine the new tax rate, according to Mehlhorn. "We concluded that last year's tax rate would have been 45.9 cents with the reassessments," Mehlhorn said, adding, "So we applied the 7-cent increase to that figure." Significant increases in the budget include debt service and municipal salaries, which both increased by approximately $1 million. Other increases include police and fire pension, which saw an approximate $523,000 increase, and group plans for employees, which increased approximately $301,000. "These are some of the largest increases that we can not touch," Mehlhorn said. "The only thing you can do is cut people. "The major increases are almost 100 percent fixed or semi-fixed costs," he said, adding, "The only thing you can touch is to cut personnel." City Business Administrator Howard H. Woolley added after the meeting, "It is impossible to cut that number of employees without drastically reducing services."