Residents Question Town Council Over 8% Tax Increase

The town council meeting in Berkeley Heights had residents in attendance up in arms on Tuesday night, turning out to challenge the council on budget expenditures and what they perceived was a lack of fiscal responsibility.

The residents' frustration had apparently been brewing since the issuance of the latest tax bill, which amounted to a whopping 8% overall annual increase, or nearly $1000.

Through their collective comments, about 15 residents said that the council had not done enough to find ways to cut costs that could have potentially hastened as much of a tax increase.

"In the third item, (statutory expenses), as a rough estimate, it is increasing by 15%, or 227,000?" one resident asked. "I think you said that (the budget line item and corresponding number) was in here (on page two) but that is not good enough for us."

The resident was referring to a two-page outline featuring major budget sections and their year-on-year increases that the council put together in anticipation of resident uproar.

"I did hear of scathing comments from the administration office because people have been coming in," said council president Kevin Hall, who was running the meeting for an absent Mayor Joe Bruno. "As soon as we were aware that there was heightened sensitivity, business administrator Amey Upchurch got together with Rachele SanFilippo and Elaine (Perna) to get ready to talk about it. Everyone is justified to be alarmed when they get a big tax bill. It's our responsibility as a council to discuss it openly."

Budget line item sections included tax increases related to county specific, county open space, school, library and municipal. When the collective increases were totaled, the budget reflected an 8% tax increase, or $10,931.20 on the average assessed home in 2011, up from $10,116.85 in 2010, a difference of $814.00 per household.

"What I got from this meeting is that you can't get help here," a resident who refused to provide her name, said. "They can't help you. They can't control the state budget, they can't control the county budget, they can't control the school, they can't control the library, so they can't help us. If that is the case, it's time to move someplace else."

Hall told the residents that they were always invited to participate in the budget hearings. The budget hearings that led to the current increases were conducted in January, February and March of this year. 

It was unclear if any of the residents who showed up to complain had been a part of those meetings, but many asked for specific line item clarification of the budget section increases, which would have been discussed in budget meetings.

Hall explained that the municipality did not have control over many of the "fixed" costs that comprise a municipal budget, which include pensions, insurance, debt service and the library.

The budget areas that it does control, he said, are wages and operating expenses, which were within the 2% cap mandated by Governor Chris Christie. "We did not violate the 2% cap," Hall said. 

The residents remained unhappy with the explanations that they were provided.

"I still believe, if you are doing your best there would be something that you can do," one resident said. "I am not satisfied for you to tell me to go check (the budget) online. There may be something I don't understand. I would appreciate your time to explain the little details for us."

Perna said that there were some budget increases that surprised her as well. She said that she was not expecting as large of an increase from the county - a nearly $300 increase over last year. The single largest increase, however, was for schools at $369.

"It really bothers me when people say, 'I work all the time and I can't come to budget meetings," Perna said. "Well you know, we work too and we (attend) the meetings. And there were six hearings on the budget."