March 20, 2013 THE VILLADOM TIMES III • Page 3
Waldwick
There will be no increase in taxes to support the municipal budget this year. The borough council last week introduced a budget for 2013 which anticipates the tax rate for municipal purposes to remain at $.555 per hundred dollars of assessed value. The $8,641,011 to be raised by taxation for 2013 is down $6,741from 2012. Therefore, taxes on a house assessed at $416,000, the borough’s average, will remain at $2,308. Over the past five-year period, the tax rate increased a total of 4 cents, a 4.1 percent rise. The total budget of $13,606,775 is $29,330 less than 2012 expenses. Expenditures over the past five years increased a total of $162,599. The total figure includes a $499,000 contribution this year for the support of the public library, a statutory requirement. Borough Administrator Gary Kratz attributed the level
Proposed budget shows no tax increase for 2013
expenditures to the more than $250,000 savings in sewer treatment charges since the sump pump ordinance was adopted two years ago. Other contributing factors were the salary breakage that resulted from employee retirements and from replacing a full time employee with a part timer, and health care cost reductions attributed to more state control of premiums and additional employee contributions for coverage. Pension costs decreased as well, Kratz said. The council decided to apply $708,500 from surplus towards this budget to further reduce the tax impact. More than 28 percent of the current surplus of $2,466,640 is being used. “I thank Gary, the council and the department heads; they did a great job with this budget. There is no tax increase, and that is good for us,” said Mayor Thomas Giordano. The council also introduced an ordinance to increase
the state-imposed cap of 2 percent to 3.5 percent and place the difference in a cap bank which may be tapped over the next two years. “We don’t need it. We are establishing the bank in case the need arises in the future,” explained Councilman Don Sciolaro, the council’s finance chairman. Sciolaro also noted that another proposed ordinance provides for a 2 percent increase for all non-union employees. The public hearing on the budget is scheduled for council’s meeting of Tuesday, April 9 at 7:30 p.m.
Waldwick officials are putting together an application for a recycling tonnage grant whose proceeds will help finance a new recycling vehicle. At its last meeting the borough council approved a resolution reaffirming the municipality’s commitment to recycling and support for a grant application for 2012 to the NJ Department of Environmental Protection. Grants Administrator Andrew Tatarenko said that supporting material is being gathered from the appropriate departments and recyclers to put together a report in support of the application. Councilman Frank Palladino, the Environmental Services Committee chairman, said that whatever funds are received will be applied towards the purchase of a vehicle to replace the 1994 garbage truck now used for recyclables collection. The borough has included $155,000 in the 2013 capital budget for a new truck. The tonnage grant is based on all materials removed from the waste stream and directed to recycling markets
Grant would defray cost of truck
from the borough. This includes not only the items picked up by the municipality curbside or collected at the recycling center on Industrial Way, but also materials recycled by private contractors or individual homeowners. In 2011 the borough received $15,787 in recognition of the 8,517 tons of eligible materials recycled that year. Talarenko said the borough could expect a similar grant amount for 2012. Materials included are commingled glass, cans, and aluminum, paper, office paper, cardboard, metal; vegetative waste, including brush, leaves, grass clippings and Christmas trees; concrete, blocks and brick and other demolition materials and wood waste. Computer and electronic equipment and white goods are also included. Tonnage grants are made available through a fund established pursuant to the state’s Mandatory Source Separation and Recycling Act of 1987. Adoption of a resolution is part of the act’s requirements as a condition for applying for tonnage grants.