Use of surplus, deferred school taxes questioned Township Council pares municipal purposes tax hike to 4.9 cents BY PATRICIA A. MILLER Staff Writer BRICK TOWNSHIP - Although Township Council members trimmed the hike in the municipal tax rate, the Citizens Budget Advisory Committee chairman doesn't think much of the way they did it. "There is a complete lack of a game plan for anything beyond the current tax year," Michael A. Liloia told the council. Liloia has served on the citizen committee since it was formed last year. The council voted to approve a number of budget amendments at the June 12 Township Council meeting. The budget now totals $71,662,324, up $3,912,00 from last year. The amount to be raised by taxation will rise to $42,251,327, up $2,475,360 from 2006. Before the budget amendments, the amount to be raised by taxation was $45,575,871. The $71,636,107 budget originally proposed by Democratic Mayor Daniel J. Kelly and Township Administrator Scott M. Pezarras called for a 12.9-cent jump in the municipal purposes tax rate, a number the members of the Republican-dominated Township Council nixed immediately. "I didn't put in a 12-cent increase because I liked it," Kelly said at the meeting. "Whoever is sitting in this chair next year is going to have to work hard to find some money." The council gradually shaved the increase down to 4.9 cents for each $100 of assessed valuation, primarily by deferring $1.9 million in school taxes and using $14,308,566 in surplus. That leaves a roughly $2.2 million cushion in the surplus account. Pezarras has said he is concerned about Brick's ability to replenish the surplus used to balance the 2007 budget. The original budget called for using $10,977,806, which would have left $3,634,387 in the surplus account. Councilwoman Kathy Russell, the lone Democrat on the council, voted against the budget amendments. She read portions of an article in the League of Municipalities magazine that warned against using too much of a town's surplus. "Let the games begin," Acropolis said after Russell cast her vote. Acropolis said recently that he told Pezarras he had a 4.9-cent increase to work with and didn't care what Pezarras did to achieve that number. Liloia questioned using so much surplus to cut the tax increase. "We have used 90 percent of the surplus to keep the 4.9-cent tax increase put forth this evening," he said. Using the bulk of the surplus account also translates into less cash on hand and the loss of anticipated interest on surplus accounts, Liloia said. "It would appear that using that much surplus is setting us up for an even larger tax increase next year," he said. Liloia said the citizens committee had made a number of suggestions in the past. "I feel collectively we had come up with some very good ideas, some good cost-saving measures," he said. "Most . . . did not seem to be implemented." He also suggested that township employees start contributing toward their health care benefits and that health care benefits for all part-time and temporary employees be eliminated. The council should also adopt an ordinance that would make any bonding over $3 million or $5 million a referendum question, he said. "See what the general public has to say prior to spending their money," Liloia said. He also questioned how much revenue the township anticipates from the sale of the old Foodtown site on Route 70 and whether the money could be used to start a tax stabilization fund that was promised last year. The $700,000 price tag for Traders Cove has been mentioned, but Liloia said the township assumed all liability for the bond and is still waiting to be paid from some of the parties involved. "The cost to the township is much more than the public was led to believe," he said. "Perhaps a little more transparency would put the public's mind at ease. The committee also opposes the purchase of the Ocean Ice Rink on Chambers Bridge Road, a purchase that would be a "right place, wrong time scenario," he said. Township Council President Stephen C. Acropolis stopped Liloia when he began talking about the ice rink. "I don't believe that is public knowledge," Acropolis said. "I haven't read about it in the newspapers." But Liloia kept going. "Spending that much money on a site that needs that much improvement is entirely too high of a price tag," he said. "The township is not in the real estate business. We feel the monies would be best spent, if spent at all, on things that would benefit all township citizens, not a select group of citizens." The township needs to have a three- to five-year plan in place for the budget, Liloia said. "There is a complete lack of a game plan for anything beyond the current tax year," he said, noting that it was an election year. Acropolis is running against Kelly for mayor. Council members Anthony Matthews, Ruthann Scaturro and Michael Thulen are all seeking another term on the council. Both Kelly and Pezarras said when they proposed the 12.9-cent hike in the tax rate that it was needed to mend what Kelly called "a structural imbalance" in township finances. The township relied on one-shot revenues and deferred school taxes for too long in the past, the mayor has said.