September 25, 2013 THE VILLADOM TIMES IV • Page 11 Mahwah Township due for rate reduction from NBCUA by Frank J. McMahon Mahwah is due to receive a $464,346 rate reduction in the sewer service charges the township must pay to the Northwest Bergen County Utilities Authority for the final quarter of 2013. The rate reduction was established by the NBCUA at its Sept. 12 meeting when the authority passed a resolution amending its 2013 annual budget to decrease the authori- ty’s total anticipated revenues by decreasing its reserves by $1,598,983. That resolution was sent to the state’s director of the division of local government for approval and Howard Hur- witz, the authority’s executive director, said a public hear- ing on the budget amendment must be held but he did not expect any objections from any government agency or from any municipality. “Every year, our auditor determines how much money is required to be in our reserve bond fund,” Hurwitz said, “and that amount changes up or down as more borrowing is made or bonds are paid off.” The money was put into the reserve account to assure the repayment of debt and Hurwitz advised that this amount of money in the reserve account was there to cover bonding from 1993 and 1994 which has now been paid off. On the same night the NBCUA passed a resolution to amend its budget, Mahwah Township Business Adminis- trator Brian Campion made the possibility of a sewer rate reduction public at a township council meeting. Campion’s comments about the rate reduction came in response to a question from Councilman John Roth. Campion explained that, a year ago, Waldwick officials inquired about the utility’s bond reserve account funds which were no longer needed and Waldwick became the lead municipality in the negotiations with the NBCUA to return those funds to the municipalities served by the authority in the form of a rate reduction. Campion explained that the $1,598,986 in the NBCUA reserve account was no longer needed since the final payment has been made on some previous debt incurred by the authority. He said the NBCUA was considering the possibility of dividing those funds into rate reductions for more than one year, but, while Campion was advising the council about the potential rate reduction, the NBCUA decided by resolution to offer a complete return of the funds immediately in the final quar- ter of 2013. According to Campion, Mahwah pays 29.04 percent of the sewer charges billed by the authority, or about $3,900,000 annually, and the township expects to receive that percentage of the reserve fund to be distributed to the municipalities served by the authority in the form of a rate reduction in the final quarter of 2013. Roth asked if that rate reduction money would go into the township’s operating budget. Campion explained that the township’s water and sewer departments have separate accounting structures and the costs of those departments are paid by the users of those facilities. “In some towns that are fully sewered, that cost is in their budgets and it affects the tax rate of those towns and so that rebate money would go into their operating bud- gets,” Campion explained. In Mahwah, he said, the money will stay in the sewer department and become excess funds to reduce future sewer charges that must be paid to the NBCUA. Campion pointed out that there is a provision in state law that allows excess funds to be moved into the general treasury, so the council could move a portion of the excess funds to the operating budget when appropriate. He voiced the concern, however, that moving the excess funds totally in one year might cause the township’s tax rate to drop down and then spike back up when the excess funds are not available to be moved into the operating budget. Roth tried to allay that concern, saying the council can control the township’s tax rate. In addition to Mahwah, the rate reduction will also be received by Waldwick, Midland Park, Ramsey, Wyckoff, Allendale, and Ho-Ho-Kus.