UPDATE: No Staff Cuts, Service Reductions In Township Budget

The Township Committee at its workshop meeting Wednesday introduced a $35 million municipal budget for 2011 that proposes to increase the taxes on the average home assessment by just less than $60 annually.

The vote to introduce the proposed spending plan was unanimous. A public hearing is scheduled for May 11.

The $35,061,334.56 budget is up $873,448.65, or 2.55 percent, from last year’s $34,187,885.91 spending plan. The 2011 budget is supported by a $24,762,016.66 tax levy, up $695,889.37, or 2.89 percent, from the 2010 levy of $24,066,127.29.

The 2011 budget proposes to raise the tax rate to 65.1 cents from 63.2 cents for each $100 of property value, an increase of 1.9 cents, or just more than 3 percent over the 2010 budget.

On a home valued at $312,700 – the township average – the 2011 municipal tax bill would be $2,035.68, up $59.41 from last year’s $1,976.264 tab.

The municipal tax bill is only one piece of the overall tax pie. The total tax bill also includes, county, school and fire district taxes.

Committee members called the budget a “working document,’’ that could be changed before the public hearing.

. The municipal portion of the overall 2010 tax bill ranked 19th in the county,  according to county tax board records. 

No municipal employees will lose their jobs under the proposed budget, nor are any programs being cut, Committeeman Clinton Hoffman said in a telephone interview Thursday. 

Some jobs will be shed, but only through attrition, not layoffs, Hoffman said.

"Everything else remains the same,'' he said. "There are no service reductions or staff cuts, except through attrition.''