Freeholders Introduce $496M County Budget by 4-1 Vote

Despite reservations expressed by three members of the Monmouth County Board of Chosen Freeholders, the governing body introduced a $496 million budget Thursday evening.

The 2011 plan passed by a 4-1 vote during the freeholders’ regular meeting at the Hall of Records in Freehold. Freeholder Deputy Director John Curley cast the dissenting vote.

“This budget is a disgrace. It has a long way to go,” Curley said during the freeholders’ afternoon workshop meeting.

Freeholders Amy Mallet and Thomas Arnone said their vote to introduce the 2011 budget was not an indication of support of the budget in its current form.

The tax levy under the introduced budget is $313 million, . The budget includes a reduction of 90 county positions, all of which have come from attrition, according to Monmouth County Finance Director Craig Marshall. No lay-offs are anticipated, Marshall noted. The freeholder board will continue to hear departmental presentations from county staff before a final budget is adopted. A vote to approve the 2011 budget is slated for Thursday, March 24 at Shrewsbury Borough Hall.

“I would not vote for this if this was the final budget,” Arnone said.

The county was under a statutory obligation to introduce a budget before Friday, Feb. 25, Marshall said.

The freeholder board also passed a resolution to exceed the county tax levy cap of 2.5 percent and increase it to 3.5 percent, with Curley the only member dissenting. Marshall noted that even with the cap increase on the tax levy, the county’s 2011 budget is still $5 million less than what is allowed by the two percent property tax cap signed into law in July by Gov. Chris Christie.

“A lid is a lid and I think we need to live within these lids. These loopholes have to be closed,” Curley said.

A public information session on the 2011 budget will be held at the Monmouth County Library Eastern Branch in Shrewsbury on Thursday, March 3 at 7 p.m.