Page 12 THE VILLADOM TIMES Mahwah IV • April 3, 2013 Township council introduces $35.6 million budget by Frank J. McMahon The Mahwah Township Council has introduced a $35,605,815 budget for 2013. The new spending plan represents an increase over the township’s 2012 budget of $749,012, or 2.2 percent. The 2013 budget will increase the local tax levy for municipal purposes by $536,528, which represents a 2.7 percent increase, which is above the two percent state-imposed cap on the tax levy. Brian Campion, the township’s business administrator, explained that overage, saying there are cost increases in the budget that are allowed to be excluded from the tax levy cap. He pointed, for instance, to the cost increase of $270,000 for health insurance and $135,000 in an allowable debt service cost increase. The budget will result in a municipal tax rate of 36 cents, which will be 3.5 percent higher than the previous tax rate. That rate increase will cost the owner of a home assessed at $470,000, which is the township’s average assessed value, an additional $56 for the municipal portion of the township’s total tax rate. Homeowners must also pay the Bergen County tax, the local school district tax, the county and municipal open space taxes, and the library tax -- all of which make up the total tax rate, which is now $1.624 per $100 of assessed value. Campion pointed out that one of the major causes of the tax rate increase is the decrease in the township’s overall net valuation, which is used to calculate the township’s tax rate. The current net valuation of the township is $5,663,744,555, down $37,867,222 from last year. The proposed budget includes a wage freeze on all township employees, even though there is an increase of $330,900 in the amount appropriated in the budget for sala- ries and wages. Campion explained that the appropriation for salaries and wages increased because of the contractual 2.5 salary increase granted last year to the township’s union employees, which became effective July 1, 2012. Last year’s budget, therefore, only contained a half year of that salary increase, while this year’s budget must absorb the full year’s expense, even though no employees will see any further increase in salary this year. The budget represents a $44,288 net reduction of the budget Mayor William Laforet presented to the council on Jan. 24. The mayor’s original proposal called for $35,650,103, which was expected to raise the township’s tax rate by 1.7 cents, or 4.89 percent. The council spent several weeknights and Saturday mornings at special meetings to review the budgets of all the township’s departments in an effort to reduce the overall budget and tax levy. Some line items were reduced and some were increased. For instance, the senior center’s budget was reduced by $2,950. That reduction of the senior center increase was a compromise after the council originally recommended a $6,000 reduction. In addition, the council deemed the inability of the school district’s new radio system to communicate with the police department a potential safety hazard. As a result, the office of emergency management’s budget was increased to fund the $5,500 cost of the equipment needed by the police and fire departments. The school district agreed to cover $3,500 to fund the equipment it needs to connect to the police department. The police department’s overtime budget was reduced by $125,000 after the council spent several meetings trying –without success -- to determine who had the authority to tell police officers to go to court on Tuesday nights on overtime. The council decided to simply reduce the police department’s overtime budget by about half of the increase requested by Police Chief James Batelli. The police department’s overtime budget became controversial during the budget review due to an increase which Council President Harry Williams explained had risen by $187,000 between 2011 when it was $327,000 and 2012 when it increased to $514,000, while the number of summonses issued rose from 5,600 to 7,600 resulting in a net cost to the township of $75,000. The council questioned who authorizes the police officers to attend court sessions on overtime, and a dispute developed among the council, Chief Batelli, Mahwah Township Prosecutor Dennis Harraka, and Mayor William Laforet about who had that authority. Court is held in the township on Tuesday and Thursday nights. On Tuesdays, traffic summonses are generally reviewed by the prosecutor and plea bargained to avoid the need to go to time consuming, costly trials, which are held on Thursdays. According to Harraka, prior to 2009, police officers routinely attended Tuesday court sessions because state law required the prosecutor to get the agreement of the police officer and the person charged with the summons before a plea agreement could be finalized. The police officers received two hours of overtime regardless of time spent in court, but if more than two hours were spent in court, they would receive four hours of overtime. In September 2009, that law was changed, Harraka explained, and the need to get the police officer’s agreement was eliminated. Since then, he said he has been able to function on Tuesday nights without a police officer, except for the security detail. He added that Mayor Laforet came to him in 2011 and asked what could be done about the reduced revenue from the court and he suggested the mayor speak to the Policemen’s Benevolent Association because that was a labor issue. Laforet did that and he told the council that, after he was elected in 2011, he made a “handshake” agreement with the PBA to limit the officers’ overtime on Tuesday nights to a two hour maximum. Chief Batelli told the council the prosecutor approved the police officers’ return to court on Tuesdays. Harraka took issue with that, saying, “I have no ability to approve them being in court. It’s just not true.” (continued on page 19)