Friday, June 14, 2013
Budget passed 4-1 Wednesday night.
The Ridgewood Village Council on Wednesday passed a budget that for the first time in nearly 20 years will not grow or increase taxes. The $45.3 million budget, a decrease from the prior year by roughly $680,000, was passed 4-1. The average homeowner – with a home valued at $686,000 – will see either flat municipal taxes or a slight reduction. Those whose home lost less than 13 percent of value on the reassessment will see a tax increase. The average homeowner pays just shy of $4,000 in municipal taxes a year. Library funding increased to 2009 spending levels, and Graydon Pool will see extended hours for a consecutive year. Village Manager Ken Gabbert said "key" village services – like public safety, infrastructure, refuse collection – …
Thursday, April 11, 2013
To pass budget without a tax increase, $3 million would be drawn from surplus funds. It makes one councilman very nervous.
Ridgewood residents very well could see no increase in their municipal taxes, but the strategy used to reach that figure has aroused concern from one official. By drawing $3 million of its surplus, Ridgewood can deliver a 0 percent tax increase to residents while avoiding layoffs, increasing the library budget to 2009 levels, and maintaing extended hours at Graydon Pool, Village Manager Ken Gabbert said. The manager previously said a zero percent tax increase would force layoffs. The $3 million withdrawl would leave only $500,000 in Ridgewood's municipal fund balance. It could be disastrous for residents, Councilman Tom Riche argued. Large-scale storms can be budgeted for through emergency appropriations, but "bad budgeting" could leave …
Monday, March 18, 2013
A tax increase at 1.5 percent projects to cost $70 to the average Ridgewood homeowner.
The potential tax hit on the municipal side won't be as heavy as first thought. According to Village Manager Ken Gabbert, a 1.5 percent increase in municipal taxes won't come close to approaching the $225 figure first bandied about. Actually, it'll be around $70 for the average resident, he said. It's not all good news, however. According to the administrator, the projected increase in revenue isn't shaping up as expected. Trimming departmental budgets also didn't yield some of the numbers they had hoped, he added. According to Gabbert, the numbers didn't "break" the way they usually do. So while the village is now able to pencil in $175,000 in FEMA funds, it's a wash. The administration is also no longer considering not filling vacant …
Tuesday, March 12, 2013
Working Ridgewood municipal budget has identified savings to reach a 1.5 percent tax increase. Mayor Paul Aronsohn says he does not support layoffs to realize no tax increase.
The average Ridgewood household could see a $225 tax hike after municipal officials identified an additional $600,000 in cuts and revenue. But cutting deeper to realize a zero tax increase might require pink slips for firefighters and police officers. According to Village Manager Ken Gabbert, $38,000 in new revenue and about $550,000 in departmental reductions have pared a potential tax increase to 1.5 percent. The figure on the working draft represents about $225 per the average resident, he said Wednesday night at the council meeting. "This proposal, without the staff reductions or layoffs, would mean a budget of $44,995,981," Gabbert said. "So we're under last year's budget by $240,000, which is a half-percent under [last year's] budget…
Friday, February 1, 2013
Down revenue from 2012, a preliminary budget offered to the council could not meet the sought zero percent tax and budget increases. Doing so would require cuts of at least $500,000, and in all likelihood, further layoffs.
The Village’s municipal budget is likely to fall short of a sought zero percent increase in 2013 unless the council is willing to slash more than $500,000, according to the proposal introduced to the council by manager Ken Gabbert Wednesday night. Mayor Paul Aronsohn, Deputy Mayor Albert Pucciarelli, and Councilwoman Gwenn Hauck campaigned on a ‘zero based budgeting approach’ in the election last year that brought them to the council last July. This will be their first budget as a majority on the council. The draft budget proposed by Gabbert, which council members called a “work in progress,” represents a 1.1 percent increase over last year’s final number of $45,2363,596. Two workers would be laid off and departments would have to be …
Charlie Kime
10:35 pm on Monday, June 17, 2013
So if Extel did the 911 system for Ridgewood's Northwest Bergen Central Dispatch (NWBCD), shouldn't Riche have recused himself from any discussion on outsourcing the service to the County, or when the Council approved a costly narrowband and infrastructure upgrade ? Forgive me if I'm wrong, but I think he was opposed to the outsourcing and in favor of the upgrade. Conflicts of interest ? … more ›