Introduced West Long Branch Budget Has Slight Increase for Taxpayers

The West Long Branch Council introduced the 2011 municipal budget during its Wednesday night meeting and announced that the cost to taxpayers will increase slightly.

The 2011 budget totals $9,863,070, down from $10,260,893 last year. Although the municipal budget has decreased, the municipal tax rate is 0.502, a 0.027 increase from 2010. For the average borough home valued at $474,507, the increase would be $128.79 for the year or about $10.73 monthly.

The borough is using $890,000 from its surplus account and $125,000 from library accounts to help lower this year's tax increase, according to Mayor Janet Tucci.

Tucci thanked all those who helped put together the 2011 budget, a challenge this year due to the new state-mandated 2 percent spending cap and stable state aid, which remained at $796,169.

"As elected officials our focus continues to be to provide a superior level of service to our residents with special emphasis on the areas of public safety and public works while attempting to keep the municipal tax rate at the lowest possible level, without a reduction in taxes," Tucci said. 

Some tough decisions had to be made in order to come up with this year's budget, including a salary freeze for all borough employees  and 5 percent spending reductions for all department budgets.

Councilman J. Thomas DeBruin has asked the council to look into adding solar panels to West Long Branch Police Department, and Councilman Christopher Neyhart asked the council to consider the accreditation of the police department. Tucci said the cost of accomplishing either of these things was too expensive for this year's budget.

"With the budget we're introducing tonight, we felt we couldn't afford to do it," Tucci said. 

Borough Administrator John Kennedy said he would sit down with West Long Branch Police Chief Arthur Cosentino to discuss accreditation to "see if we can work it into his budget."

The 2011 capital budget calls for a new, $500,00 fire truck to replace a 32-year-old truck for West Long Branch Fire Company 2. It will take 10 years to pay off the cost of the truck, but Monmouth University has offered to pay for half of the cost of the truck, if they are financially able to do so, according to Tucci. 

In a cost-saving measure, the borough recently agreed to share police dispatch services with Oceanport. 

"This will help generate an additional income of $100,000 for our borough, which will be prorated this year" Tucci said. 

West Long Branch Police Capt. Lawrence Mihlon said all dispatch services will be handled by the West Long Branch Police Department by the end of April. 

There will be a public hearing on the budget on April 20, where it will also be up for final reading and adoption.