HILLSDALE—The Borough Council approved a $19.3 million 2024-2025 budget at its April 9 meeting. It’s an increase of $3.1 million over last year, which will increase property taxes 3.5% or approximately $104 on an average assessed borough home of $476,000.
The amount to be funded by local taxes is $11.3 million, up $379,000 over last year, or 3.5%.
The vote was, 5-0, with councilman John Ruocco abstaining. Ruocco, a former two-term mayor here, headed the council’s Finance Committee that developed the budget. He did not state his concerns at the open meeting but detailed them in a letter to this edition of Pascack Press.
His letter begins, “…I abstained when a vote on the budget was taken because, while technically sound and responsive to the desires of the council majority, it raised aspects that troubled me. I believed that someone on the dais needed to demonstrate concern over the size of the tax increase, the lack of information that has been shared with the public to date on the projects for which appropriations have been included in the budget, and the implications on future tax increases.”
A Finance Committee budget presentation online notes the three primary reasons driving the $3.1 million (20%) municipal budget increase from last year.
The first reason is a $2.6 million appropriation to the capital improvement fund, the largest portion being $1.3 million for field improvements to Centennial and Memorial fields, with monies raised from a 5% tax increase approved in 2021 by council.
Originally, the 5% tax increase was to service a $10 million bond for field improvements at Centennial, and a new community center at Stonybrook Swim Club. “Those projects never launched and the debt was never issued,” reads the online presentation. The field project has been downsized and the community center canceled.
The second reason driving the 20% increase includes salaries and wages up 6.7% ($334,000) and other expenses up 6.9% ($567,000); staff additions to police, DPW, administrative, and clerical departments; moving to a paid daytime ambulance service; continuing the twice-weekly garbage pickup schedule in a new contract; and debt service up 27.7%, ($66,000) due to larger, short-term debt to be funded.
The third reason driving budget costs are increases in categories over which the mayor and council have no control. These include: group medical insurance (up $193,000 or 17%); state-mandated public library funding (up $48,000 or 6.8%); and county utility charges (up $28,000, or 2%).
Officials said the average municipal tax, including public library tax, will likely be $3.131. While officials said the total 2024-2025 tax bill cannot be known, the preliminary 2024-2025 tax estimate was $15,032.
However, this does not include any tax impact from potential George White Middle School renovations, not expected to affect taxes until at least 2025.
A ballot referendum on a $62 million renovation plan to update George White is planned for this September. School officials estimated a $970.85 annual tax impact on an average home.
Resident Jonathan DeJoseph asked how much of the budget increase was due to “increased headcount.” Chief financial officer David Young told him that salaries were up, state health benefits increased about 23% and that “a fair amount of it was in additional headcount” such as new employees in police and public works, plus making some part-time employees into full-time employees.
Before the vote, Mayor Michael Sheinfield urged council members to support the budget.
“No one anywhere in Hillsdale—including everyone on this governing body—is going to agree with everything contained in the 2024 budget. With that said, the residents of Hillsdale have the right to expect their mayor and council to come together and create a sound vision for their community. That vision is reflected in and by this budget,” he said.
The mayor said he supports the budget, although he only sees it after it’s worked on by the borough Finance Committee, CFO, and administrator. “I don’t even get to vote on it,” he said.
Sheinfield said he would not “play politics with something as important as our fiscal stability” and “won’t abdicate my responsibility by simply saying prior councils created the current situation and then refuse to support a budget that raises taxes or cuts services to make up for what was done in the past.”
He told council members “It’s not good enough to simply vote no.” He said he would ask them what they would change to make the budget one they could support. “Don’t tell us you want to cut taxes because we all want to cut taxes… We deal with the world as it is, not as we want it to be.”