PARK RIDGE—The Borough Council narrowly introduced a $17.3 million 2022 municipal budget on April 26 that includes a 9.5% increase in expenses and an average $133 annual increase on homeowners.
The budget introduction was approved 4-2, with councilmen John Cozzi and William Fenwick opposed. Voting in favor were council president Robert Metzdorf and members John Ferguson, Matt Capilli, and Kelly Epstein.
A public hearing will be held May 24 at 8 p.m. at Borough Hall. The full 79-page budget is posted under “2022 Financial Documents” on the borough’s Finance and Tax Department webpage.
“In relation to the budget, Mr. Cozzi and I had proposed using additional surplus and COVID-19 relief funds in the budget to reduce the tax increase that our residents are facing this year. Given the large, but unavoidable increases in water and electric rates our residents are already facing, we believed it was important to limit the tax increase,” Fenwick told Pascack Press on May 3.
He added, “The Democrats instead decided to raise taxes by more than what was fiscally required, for the purpose of maintaining a higher surplus, despite the fact they themselves had lowered the surplus a few years ago to a level beneath what we proposed this year.”
Fenwick and Cozzi are Republicans; remaining council members and the mayor are Democrats.
Although the budget increased by $1,502,417 over the 2021 budget, the tax levy amount only increased 3.6 percent over 2021. The municipal tax levy showed a $408,829 increase over the 2021 tax levy of $11,479,429.
The average home in Park Ridge is assessed at $474,000.
Out of the $17.3 million budget, the municipal tax levy is $11,888,258, which includes the annual library budget, said CFO Consuelo Carpenter. She said a user-friendly version of the budget will be posted once council approves the final budget.
On a budget summary sheet sent to Pascack Press, an “analysis of tax rate” shows that of the $17.296,470 total budget, the local tax levy is reduced by an anticipated surplus of $1,300,000; miscellaneous revenues of $3,923,212; and receipts from delinquent taxes of $185,000.
It calculates the amount to be raised by taxes to be $11,253,369, plus $634,889, which is the state-mandated municipal library portion, for a total of $11,888,258.
Borough Administrator Julie Falkenstern said the two largest 2022 municipal increases were in the public safety and public works budget line items. These included a new solid waste contract with Interstate Waste Services, Teaneck, which is up over $150,000, and increased costs for street repaving projects.
Other increases under public safety included hiring an extra police officer, and increased costs for officers’ body-worn cameras, police vehicle cameras, and storage costs for recorded police camera video.