Chamber News Feed: Hunterdon County, NJ: In a 3-2 vote the Franklin Township Committee voted Thursday night to introduce the 2014 municipal budget. Although details on the income and spending were not provided, Mayor Bruce Polkowitz said that it will result in a property tax increase for municipal purposes of around $32 on the average home. The 2013 budget totaled $3,197,405, of which the local tax was $1,448,513 and the budget is increasing about $29,000, he said. Committee members Susan Soloway and Tim Wintermute, who both joined the governing body in January, voted against the introduction. Soloway, the Finance Committee chairman, said she “was hoping we could put this off for two weeks and I can finish my analysis.” Wintermute did not explain his vote. Polkowitz told Soloway that he’d told her earlier there was no reason to delay. If she has problems with certain areas of the budget, he continued, she should speak with the subcommittees in charge of those departments. There’s “no reason not to introduce” now, he continued. The mandatory public hearing will be at the May 22 committee meeting. The mayor on Friday explained that if the introduction and thus hearing and final adoption is delayed, that puts off sending the budget to the state for its approval. The result, he said, could be Franklin having to send out estimated tax bills in the meantime. “That is irresponsible and would cost the taxpayers thousands and thousands of dollars,” he said. During the public comment session at the end of the meeting, resident Craig Rettman asked several questions about the township changing the way it calculates the amount employees must pay toward their medical insurance coverage. And this led to a lengthy and spirited discussion, mainly between Polkowitz and Soloway. The mayor said then, with follow up in an interview, that the 2011 Township Committee, none currently serving, adopted a resolution about the employee payments that called for them to rise each year. It’s resulted in them paying far more than they would under the state’s law Chapter 78 option of setting the contributions, he said. In his opinion, some township workers “were gouged,” and forced to pay “500, 600, 700 percent more than any other” government employees in New Jersey. One employee, he claimed, with a salary of $42,000 would have paid around 30 percent of his pay or $12,000 for coverage now. The change only affects two employees, Polkowitz said Saturday, because the union contracts covering those in the Police and Public Works departments provide for payments more than those under Chapter 78. The committee at its Dec. 12 meeting delayed action on rescinding the 2011 arrangement, but on Dec. 30 with three members present voted to do so and follow the state law guidelines. Soloway argued at the meeting Thursday that during a “lame duck” session Dec. 12 before she took office, the matter came up and the committee agreed to table it until January. But then it went ahead and acted on it Dec. 30, she continued. The two people who left the committee at the end of last year did not attend that meeting, Polkowitz said, so it would not have made any difference in the vote. Franklin employees “should be paying their fair share” for benefits and not more, he said. Your Bernards Township Regional Chamber of Commerce Works for You!
Posted on: Mon, 28 Apr 2014 10:43:02 +0000
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