Mt. Laurel Township Council has passed its 2019 budget, although not without dissent from council’s two-member Democratic minority.
On a 3-2 vote, with all three of council’s Republican members voting “yes” and council’s two Democratic members voting “no,” council used a portion of its most recent meeting to pass the 2019 budget in the amount of about $39.3 million.
This figure is up slightly from last year’s $39 million budget.
With the newly enacted 2019 budget, Mt. Laurel Township’s municipal tax rate will rise slightly from the previous figure of 34.7 cents per every $100 of assessed property value to the new rate of 35.2 cents per every $100 of assessed property value.
As such, homeowners in Mt. Laurel with properties at the average assessed value of $237,600 will see their municipal taxes increase about $12.08 per year.
It was that $12.08 municipal tax increase that caused disagreement between the members of council, with Democratic Councilmembers Kareem Pritchett and Steve Steglik each pointing to the increase as the cause of their “no” votes.
“I just think there needs to be more of a discussion from keeping the taxpayer from paying higher taxes,” Pritchett said.
However, when council’s Republican members asked Pritchett and Steglik what, if anything, they would change or cut from the budget to avoid the tax increase, the two Democrats did not have specific suggestions.
“I’m sure the people who put the budget together, our auditor and township manger, would love to hear your thoughts” Deputy Mayor Linda Bobo said.
Council’s Republicans also pointed to recent years, such as the 2016 and 2018 budgets, that kept taxes flat with no increases. The 2017 budget, similar to this year’s 2019 budget, included a half-a-penny increase in the local tax rate, leading to about a $12 increase for the average homeowner.
In response to council’s Republicans, Steglik said he and Pritchett had previously expressed their concerns to the township manager before the meeting, although later in the meeting Steglik said he and Pritchett would offer alternatives if the two should choose to dissent on an issue in the future.
“That is something I want to do moving forward,” Steglik said.
As for the details of the 2019 budget itself, Mt. Laurel Township Manager Meredith Tomczyk said the increase in appropriations and taxes could be attributed to several factors, including an increasing number of tax appeals from properties in town, pension payments and growing costs for information technology.
To that point, officials have noted state regulations require the township to retain digital information from cameras on police officers and their vehicles, leading to growing computer server costs.
Tomczyk also noted total taxable rates fell slightly from last year by about 550,000, out of total of $5,775,966,890.
However, Tomczyk also noted officials believe the township’s total ratables figure would once again increase when factoring in the figure for next year’s budget, as several new, large businesses had already opened in Mt. Laurel in 2018, but not before the Oct. 1 deadline in which the township could have legally figured those business into the ratable figure for the 2019 budget.
However, Tomczyk also noted the budget did not cut employees or services such as police and EMS, and the budget also retained all annual township events, such as the Taste of Mt. Laurel, Concerts in the Park, National Night Out and Santa Comes to Mt. Laurel.
As in previous years, Tomczyk also noted Mt. Laurel’s municipal tax rate for 2019 would once again equal about 12 percent of a resident’s overall local tax bill.
As Tomczyk outlined, included within in that 12 percent is police and animal control services, EMS services, trash removal and disposal, snow removal, public works services, the continued operation of the Mt. Laurel Community Center, maintenance of parks and public property and more.
For the remaining 88 percent of a resident’s local tax bill, Tomczyk said the funds were divided between Mt. Laurel’s K-8 school district (estimated at 39 percent), the Lenape Regional High School District (estimated at 25 percent), Burlington County (estimated at 14 percent), Mt. Laurel Fire District No. 1 (estimated at 6 percent) open space funding (estimated at 3 percent) and the Mt. Laurel Library tax (estimated at 1 percent).
