By JACKIE HANUSEY
Staff Writer

LINWOOD – The city plans to introduce the proposed budget Wednesday, April 9, and officials are blaming a drop in state aid for the projected increase of nearly 8 cents on the municipal tax rate.

As of Friday, the proposed budget was $12,113,743, an increase of $403,219 from last year’s $11,710,524 budget.
The municipal tax rate this year is expected to be 90 cents, up 7.7 cents from 82.3 cents in 2007.

“I don’t disagree with Governor Corzine attempting to reduce the state budget,” Linwood Councilman and chair of the Revenue and Finance Committee Alex Marino said.  “But the governor needs to get his head out of the sand.”

Marino said what he disagrees with is the cut to the municipalities and the timing.

Linwood officials, like those running other municipalities in the state, say they want to stabilize taxes, but with state cuts, they say they have nowhere to get extra funding but from the taxpayer.

Marino said he has been working the “big-ticket departments which have higher operating expenses like public works, police, fire and recreations” to keep costs down.

“We will reach out to the county, and don’t be surprised if we start reaching out more to our neighbors” for sharing services, he said.

He said the difficulty of formulating a budget is balancing what people are willing to pay with what people are willing to give up.

Marino said costs the city can’t control, such as utilities, which are up 13 percent; group insurance, which is up another 20; library appropriations, which have risen 8.3 percent; and pension costs are responsible for almost 5.5 cents of the tax rate increase.

The budgeted cost of street lighting alone in 2008 went from $97,000 to $105,000.  And the hydrants in the city, which cost $58,000 in 2007, will shoot to $60,000.

The owner of a home assessed at $250,000, the average assessment in Linwood, would be $192 in city taxes, Marino said. The last revaluation was in 2003, and another is expected in the next few years.

Marino said city taxes account for only about 25 percent of homeowner’s entire tax bill.  About 15 percent is the county and the remaining 60 percent comes from the Linwood and Mainland Regional school districts.

The councilman said that the city does not like using more than about 50 percent of the surplus to offset taxes, but this year they are using 65 percent, leaving about $410,000 in the surplus.

“After the governor’s budget address we had to look at more things that we could put off,” he said. 
That included reducing the capital budget 19 percent from last year to $910,000.

He said they are putting a lot of projects on the back burner.

“Instead of doing one year of multimillion dollar project, we are trying to chip away year after year,” said Marino, who is working on his third budget as a councilman.

There were no wage increases for part-time employees, and noncontractual wages are only up the costs of living, 3.5 percent, he said.

Marino said that while the state is making up for bad decisions in the past, the city is looking out for the future.
“We are looking under every rock to find some money,” he said.

He said it is hard when 86.7 percent of Linwood’s tax base comes from the residents.

Still, the Cornerstone Commerce Center, assessed close to $21 million, will bring in $220,000 to the city under the tax abatement.

Linwood City Council meetings are held the second and fourth Wednesday of the month at City Hall on Poplar Avenue.  Caucus meetings begin at 6 p.m. with the regular meeting directly following.  Marino said he will be presenting information on the budget Wednesday to those in attendance.  The public hearing, where residents can formally speak out about the budget, is expected to be Wednesday, May 14.

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