Sparta council approves 1-cent municipal tax increase

SPARTA - Sparta residents will see a 1-cent increase in their municipal tax rate after the township council this week approved a $21,967,328 budget for 2006. The municipal tax rate, which represents a 2 percent increase from 2005, means Sparta residents will pay an extra $30 per year for every $300,000 in assessed property value. A typical taxpayer, for example, whose home is assessed at $308,400, will pay $8,573.52 in property taxes this year. “The 2006 township budget is conservative in proposed spending and in revenue anticipation,” said Sparta Township Manager Henry Underhill. “To keep the municipal tax rate increase this low, the township council has not only reviewed expenditures, but also the entire list of revenues.” Department heads spent the early part of the year presenting the council with proposed budgets during long public hearings. In previous years, departmental budgets were first reviewed by the township manager and then forwarded to the council for recommendations. Mayor Alish Hambel said the council is in agreement that the new formula has some kinks that need to be worked out. “We really scrutinized this budget,” she said. “I’m glad it happened so that we proved to ourselves and to the public that this is not the way to go. It was not a good use of our time and effort.” Sparta’s tax hike comes on the heels of a proposed budget from Gov. Jon Corzine, who said the Garden State would have to make “painful choices” to attain financial stability. Facing a multi-billion dollar budget gap, the former Wall Street whiz proposed a plan that would increase sales, alcohol and cigarette taxes and break his campaign promise to sharply cut residential property taxes, the highest in the nation. “We’re all taxpayers, each one of us on the council,” said Hambel. “The place to look at is the state and the formula to fund everything. It comes too heavily on the bedroom communities and the homeowners.” Sparta residents allocate 63 percent of their tax dollars to schools, 19 percent to the township, 17 percent to the county, and 1 percent to open space. The council entered the budget process with an eye toward reducing the annual surplus left over at the end of each year. Sparta, like most towns, factors a surplus into the budget to compensate for uncollected taxes or unforeseen expenditures. For the first time in years, the township amended the tax collection rate to 95.1 percent, an increase from 94.7 percent a year ago. “The change in and of itself is not remarkable,” said Underhill. “However, the actual collection rate dropped from 97.8 percent to 97.4 percent. These two changes combine to be a reduction of 0.8 percent. At the same time, we have increased our anticipated collection of delinquent taxes and maximized the amount of surplus being used.” Underhill said the township has retained the barest minimum of un-appropriated fund balance as the result of an auditor’s advice. He cautioned that the changes could reduce the fund balance available in 2007 and affect the municipal tax rate. “We tore this budget apart,” said Hambel. “We went through every line item, every department. I can’t imagine anything else we could have cut.” Among the cost-saving measures, the township council rejected a plan to increase the size of the police force from 38 to 41 officers, eliminated a ranger position for Station Park, and shopped around for a better health plan for employees. Underhill predicted that Sparta’s residential ratable growth, which has grown significantly in the past 15 years, was coming to a close. He said within two to three years, open space preservation, the Highlands Act and a lack of developable land will restrict ratable growth. “The township has grown in population, houses, commercial buildings and road miles,” said Underhill. “This growth makes balancing expenses against expenditures increasingly difficult. The township has a very efficient government and any additional budget cuts would come by way of cutting services.” By placing a sanitary sewer system in the planned town center, Underhill said the township would find ways to encourage commercial growth. “We are reaching build-out, but we’ve been able to keep this town beautiful,” said Hambel. “Now we’ll be able to redirect our energies toward stabilizing Sparta.”