Tinton Falls Municipal Budget: A Primer

If a borough council held a special budget workshop and nobody came, would the budget really exist?

Although the special budget workshop held by the Tinton Falls Borough Council on Tuesday didn’t produce the dialogue with the community it was hoping for (only three residents showed up), it did allow the council and members of the administration an opportunity to have an open dialogue and ask questions about the proposed $20 million budget.

Borough Chief Financial Officer Stephen Pfeffer went through the details of the 2011 budget, which calls for an $11.9 million tax levy, in a PowerPoint presentation and council members stopped him throughout and asked questions.

Zero-Percent Employee Wage Increase Explained

In particular, Councilman Steven P. Schertz questioned Pfeffer’s assertion that borough employees took a zero percent wage increase in 2011, pointing out that unionized employees—like the police and public works employees—still receive step salary and longevity increases.

Although borough employees agreed in recent negotiations to pay 2 percent of their base salaries for health benefits and another 1.5 percent into their pensions, Pfeffer explained that the borough is bound by contract to grant those salary increases.

“We’ve got to be fair to the public,” said Schertz, who was appointed to the council last month. “The public doesn’t understand that.”

“Let’s be transparent,” said Schertz, and Pfeffer agreed to amend the budget presentation to reflect that certain increases occur due to contractual arrangements outside the zero increase.

Obstacles in Building a Budget

Although the borough decreased overall municipal spending by nearly $400,000, including about $650,000 in wages and salaries, the tax levy is up 1.4 percent due to increases in state-mandated pension and benefit contributions. Other cost drivers included:

• rising fuel prices (costs were up $15,000 from 2010);
• pending tax appeal by Seabrook Village and associated legal fees;
• high number of successful tax appeals;
• decrease in state aid.

Cutting Employees and Looking into Overtime

A discussion also ensued regarding whether further spending cuts could have been made and if there was “too much fat,” questioned Schertz.

Council President Gary Baldwin pointed out that most costs are fixed and only 23 percent of the budgetary pie is discretionary.

Members discussed cutting staff positions, and Pfeffer pointed out that there is a difference between private sector and government employees.

“At the end of the day, no matter what, we have to be there,” he said of police and other workers who respond to various borough emergencies. “We can’t walk away and say we’re not going.”

Schertz brought up whether overtime could be tracked better by the borough, as now it is left up to department heads to monitor.

Most of the public works department employees accrue overtime for snow removal, said Pfeffer, and the police are used on an “as needed basis.”

“These are things we’ll never know because we’re not into the minutiae,” said Schertz. Council members pointed out that all department heads—police, recreation, public works and emergency management—attend every council meeting.

“The public perception is that no one is watching the store,” said Schertz. He said he wants the borough to reevaluate how it operates. “We need to think of ourselves less as a municipality and more like a business.”

Surplus Weighs in at $3.15 million

The surplus line in the budget also generated plenty of discussion with council members trying to understand what it’s made up of and what it is used for.

The $3.15 million surplus is used as a cushion, explained Pfeffer, to be used for unforeseen costs— like a major roof repair—that had not been budgeted for.

But when resident Leo Christofili questioned why the mayor and council didn’t return a portion of the surplus to the taxpayers and flatten out the tax levy, Schertz spoke out on the prudency of keeping cash in reserve.

“We’re fortunate we have a couple of bucks in the bank, just in case,” he said.

Resident and former councilman Charles Lomangino commended the mayor and council for this year’s budget process. “This has been the best group getting the most done,” he said. “The only thing I’m disappointed about is that the public isn’t here to witness it.”

The will hold a public hearing on May 3 on the budget and hopes to have it approved by the end of next month, according to Baldwin.