WyBlog

Caldwell Proposes 2% Tax Increase, Wage Freeze

Joseph Norton had his fingers crossed a couple of weeks ago.

The Caldwell councilman and chairman of the budget committee was on the verge of presenting a 2010 budget with a zero percent tax increase.

However, following Gov. Chris Christie's reductions in state aid that slashed Caldwell by $176,575, Norton presented Tuesday night a budget of $12,008,630.16 — an increase of $172,832.49 — that includes a wage freeze for non-union employees and will pose an approximate 2 percent tax hike or an estimated $75 increase per average household in the borough.

"The governor had to do what he had to do, but if everything remained equal, we would have had the ability to introduce tonight a zero tax increase budget," said Norton, who plans to formally introduce the budget at council's next public meeting on April 13.

"When we started this budget process, we were in the area of $435,000 of an increase. We did pare that number down in the budget committee and various committees worked diligently to provide information to the budget committee to get that number down to zero. But after the changes in state aid, we've been working nonstop since then to get our number down to where we're at now."

Councilman Peter Murray questioned whether the $125,000 budgeted for police overtime should be adjusted as well.

The police department, which was paid nearly $170,000 in overtime last year, has already reached approximately $42,000 in overtime in 2010, Ruane said.

"Currently we have the overtime listed as $125,000. That was a number we were targeting," Murray said. "Based on the current rate that the overtime is projected, we're talking about $175,000 to $180,000. That would immediately put us almost $50,000 short of any number that is in here."