County Budget: $139.2 Million, Proposed Levy up a Half Cent

CREST HAVEN – In slightly over an hour Jan 21, freeholders discussed the $139.2-million, 2014 county budget that is up $694,299 over the previous spending plan. It is under the state 2 percent cap. The budget will be introduced Jan. 28 at the freeholder meeting scheduled for 4:30 p.m. at the county Administration Building, 4 Moore Road.
If adopted after publication and a hearing, the tax rate would be .2092, an increase of .0036 percent from last year’s .2056.
Total county levy to support the budget would be $98.3 million, compared with last year’s $96.5 million, a $1.8 million increase.
Revenues are projected to drop $1.1 million to $40.1 million. During 2013 that revenue was $42 million, a 2.65 percent decline.
To support the budget $9 million of surplus will be used from $17.1 million available.
Wellness seems to be fiscally rewarding to the county, noted Chief Financial Officer Francine Springer. She termed the past year “excellent” in that area. Many department heads and employees joined in the plan for better lifestyle awareness. Those combined efforts of eating healthier, exercising more, and taking better personal care “helped drive the cost down in 2013,” she noted.
The result, Springer said, is fare better than in 2012 when the county had to fund $4.5 million to fund the health benefit program.
“I hate to harp on wellness, but I really think the employees did a great job this year to continue to move forward and have healthier lifestyles,” she said at the outset of her presentation. The meeting room had many department heads in attendance, all prepared to respond to questions from the board.
Tumbling ratables continued their fifth downward year, at $46,975 billion. They were $47,186,483,871 in 2013. Compare those figures to the 20-year set of ratables and they are far from the 2009 peak of $55.1 billion. The ratable tally is an important factor since it is the basis on which county taxes are based.
Property values, moved by market forces, are signs of the national and regional economies. As sales figures in the market drop, so do ratables, either from reassessments or from successful tax appeals by owners. Those property taxes fund about 68 percent of the spending plan, Springer said.
A graph of the county’s general tax rates for the decade 2003 to 2013 slightly resembles a pipe organ arrangement, with the high in 2003 close to 30 cents, declining each year until 2007 and 2008 when it remained at 15 cents, and then started an upswing. This year’s rate will increase about half a cent.
Total positions increased by two, adding to the County Prosecutor’s staff. Those new jobs bring number of county employees to 995. Those include 952 budgeted positions and 43 seasonal and temporary workers.
Paying all employees means an appropriation of $45,341,764 from the budget. That is a $64,000 reduction for overtime requests, and is a $19,500 reduction in temporary seasonal requests.
Employee numbers are down from a high in 2008 when 1,133 drew paychecks.
Contract negotiations continue with the main county employees’ union, AFSCME, the Fraternal Order of Police and Policeman’s Benevolent Association in the Sheriff’s Department, and PBA with the Prosecutor’s Office. Negotiations are also being conducted with some other prosecutor’s and superior officers, said County Counsel Barbara Bakley-Marino.
The capital budget, presented by Purchasing Agent Kim Allen is $1.8 million, a reduction of $179,854. The budget contains $200,000 in the “capital improvement fund.”
Freeholder Director Gerald Thornton commented that the endeavor to reach the Jan. 21 deliberation was “a long, drawn-out process for all of us and you. Overall, it was done well to get it where we sit today.”