Bloomingdale Budget Contains $58 Increase for Average Home

The adopted its $9,727,519 budget for 2012 at Tuesday's meeting, reflecting a projected $58 increase in municipal taxes for the average assessed home.

The average assessed home in Bloomingdale is $255,286 this year, as opposed to $147,806 last year, when a $9,569,599 municipal budget was adopted. The borough this past year. Last year's average tax bill was about $9,480 after a 6.4 percent tax rate.

Bloomingdale Councilman and Budget Committee Chairman Ray Yazdi presented a breakdown of the 2012 municipal budget during a public hearing Tuesday. In his presentation, he showed what portion of the taxes on an average assessed home will go to each borough department. Of the municipal portion of taxes, excluding the Recreation and Open Space Establishment (ROSE) Fund tax, approximately $665 will go to public safety, which includes police and fire services, first aid services, dispatch services, emergency management and animal control.

Approximately $574 will pay for borough employee costs, including health insurance, pensions, social security, workers' compensation and unemployment insurance. About $411 will go toward the borough's debt while approximately $390 covers costs, such as road maintenance, sanitation and tipping fees. Costs for administration and management, which account for the mayor and council members' salaries, borough clerk, business administrator and tax collector's offices' costs, are about $214 and "other costs," including utilities and gasoline, are about $123 out of the tax bill.

The borough's professionals' costs account for about $55 out of the average tax bill and various boards, including the Recreation Commission and Bloomingdale Planning Board, account for about $54 under the 2012 budget.

Yazdi said he is sensitive to the fact that these numbers may increase for residents whose property values changed with the revaluation.

While the tax rate has not yet been determined, as the Passaic County tax figure is not yet available, the borough's Recreation and Open Space Establishment (ROSE) Fund tax is also expected to increase by about $27 for the average household. Through , which was approved by referendum in 2001, the borough pays for recreation and open space projects and maintenance that would otherwise be funded through the general budget.

Mayor Jonathan Dunleavy also noted at Tuesday's meeting that the borough is able to fund some flood mitigation efforts through the ROSE Fund with help from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection Blue Acres program.

The borough will see a 100 percent increase in the expenditure of animal sheltering services under the 2012 budget, as it from the Bloomingdale Regional Animal Shelter Society (BASS) and . BASS had and after several months, the administration decided it would be cheaper for the borough to run what is now known as the North Jersey Community Animal Shelter than to agree to BASS' requests.

Gasoline costs and health insurance costs are the two other largest areas of increase in expenses for the borough in 2012. But the borough will be saving about $45,000 on legal expenses in the 2012 budget and about $92,772 less will be spent on shared services this year over last year.

Former Councilwoman Linda Huntley was the only member of the public to speak during the public hearing on the budget. She questioned why Yazdi agreed with including a Federal Emergency Management Agency reimbursement and one-time budget item to reduce the initial budget, introduced in April, which was over the state-mandated cap, if Yazdi was vocal last year that the budget should not include those items.

Yazdi said this year, the borough's budget was initially $575,000 above the 2 percent cap, a "direct result of what's happened in the past."

Huntley also questioned the $147,000 in anticipated revenue from a settlement with the that is being built in the borough. Dunleavy said the money was negotiated as part of a settlement agreement, but did not go into detail as it was a part of litigation.

Yazdi thanked Borough Auditor Dieter Lerch's firm for to help the borough reduce the initially budgeted amount.

"They did a great job pointing out all the solutions, all the options available to us, to get us out of this mess we walked into this year," he said.

Yazdi said he would like to invite the public to participate in the budget process for next year with workshops separate from council meetings in the fall. He said he has already begun working on next year's budget.