TOWNSHIP OF WASHINGTON—After six budget meetings over the last month spent questioning department heads, reviewing expenses, and reducing costs where possible, the Township Council voted, 4-1, on April 24 to introduce a $15.6 million municipal budget that raises taxes $256 on the average homeowner.
A public hearing on the $15,612,581 budget will be held 6:30 p.m., Monday, May 22. The amount to be raised by local taxes is $10,726,742.
Of the average $256 tax increase, $242 is for municipal operations and $14 for the public library.
“It is anticipated that the municipal taxes on an average home currently assessed at $465,000 will increase $256,” states the budget message included in the 76-page document.
Councilman Steven Cascio, who participated in the budget hearings, voted against introducing the budget. “No, I think we can do better,” he said on April 24.
He later told Pascack Press, “I know the township council can do better lowering the mayor’s budget much more than that was presented. Although there was a reduction in the proposed budget, I am firmly convinced the council could have kept the budget flat from the 2022 budget and not increased it.”
The budget is posted on the township website under Budget/Financials on the Government dropdown menu. Click on the “2023 Introduced Budget.”
The council went page by page through the draft budget, with members voting yes or no on each page of the budget after discussions to approve, reduce or eliminate individual line items.
Cascio noted, “While some costs have increased due to the country’s economy (that the council has no control over), the administration and council should have cut back further in other areas. Needs and ‘like to haves’ or ‘wants’ are two different animals. The property taxes have become burdensome to a majority of township taxpayers and it is not sustainable for those that wish to live and prosper here. For the above reason I voted no to introduce and possibly rework the numbers.”
Of four favorable voters, only Councilwoman Stacey Feeney offered a comment on April 24. “Yes, I do commend the mayor and administration for doing a great job and thank you Mr. Corcoran,” she said.
John Corcoran is the township’s chief financial officer. He participated in all budget meetings.
In addition to Feeney, Council President Desserie Morgan, councilwoman Daisy Velez, and councilman Tom Sears voted in favor of the budget introduction.
Our efforts to get a budget summary sheet, or budget highlights from Corcoran were not returned by press time.
At the April 4 budget meeting, following completion of its budget review, Morgan said, “I think we did a pretty good job of trimming the budget as much as we could with what was in our power outside of just inflation in general.”
She later added, “Good job guys and thank you for being open-minded … I think we did the best we could.”
Mayor Peter Calamari complimented the budget process in early April.
“On behalf of the administration and department heads, we appreciate your work on the budget, we think you worked with the department heads … the decreases were very in line, very reasonable, so on behalf of all the employees in the departments, I want to thank the council for coming up with the budget that they did,” he said.
Added Calamari, “It’s always a pleasure working with you on this.”
The budget shows an increase of $1,088,920 over the 2022 municipal budget, according to the proposed 2023 budget.