Budget decisions
As the council progresses through the year decisions are made that will impact the next years annual budget and thus services and property taxes. At the last meeting they could have passed a resolution requesting an accelerated tax lien take place but they did not.
What is an accelerated tax sale, well there are two types of property tax lien sales which are the standard sale or an accelerated sale. The accelerated sale can be done in the fiscal year in which the property taxes are not paid. The standard sale is done after the end of the fiscal year the property taxes are not paid. Accelerated sales are done in the tax year so the total property tax collection rate is boosted thus negating having to raise extra revenue in the next years town budget. The date to advertise and have an accelerated tax sale was November 11, 2011, instead the town will have a standard tax sale sometime in April 2012. Apparently the town is satisfied with 96.7 % tax collection rate and has decided an accelerated tax sale is not needed to improve the tax collection rate.
The Mayor must also hold meetings with the Department heads in November and get their budget requests. January 15, 2012 is the date that the Mayors budget has to be presented to the Council for their review. It will be interesting to see how that budget handles the property tax collection rate.
It was also announced at the last meeting that the Police and DPW employee contracts have been negotiated. Those contracts will now be taken back to the employees who will vote them up or down. Once the employees have voted the council will be given the contracts to approve or disapprove. These contracts should be viewed as a bench mark for this council and mayors job performance. The second job performance criteria will be found on page/sheet 11 , line 6A of the annual town budget.
http://www.vernontwp.com/egov/docs/1296502424_981445.pdf
http://www.vernontwp.com/egov/docs/1276027914_17578.pdf
http://www.vernontwp.com/egov/docs/1312820490_395507.pdf
As the council progresses through the year decisions are made that will impact the next years annual budget and thus services and property taxes. At the last meeting they could have passed a resolution requesting an accelerated tax lien take place but they did not.
What is an accelerated tax sale, well there are two types of property tax lien sales which are the standard sale or an accelerated sale. The accelerated sale can be done in the fiscal year in which the property taxes are not paid. The standard sale is done after the end of the fiscal year the property taxes are not paid. Accelerated sales are done in the tax year so the total property tax collection rate is boosted thus negating having to raise extra revenue in the next years town budget. The date to advertise and have an accelerated tax sale was November 11, 2011, instead the town will have a standard tax sale sometime in April 2012. Apparently the town is satisfied with 96.7 % tax collection rate and has decided an accelerated tax sale is not needed to improve the tax collection rate.
The Mayor must also hold meetings with the Department heads in November and get their budget requests. January 15, 2012 is the date that the Mayors budget has to be presented to the Council for their review. It will be interesting to see how that budget handles the property tax collection rate.
It was also announced at the last meeting that the Police and DPW employee contracts have been negotiated. Those contracts will now be taken back to the employees who will vote them up or down. Once the employees have voted the council will be given the contracts to approve or disapprove. These contracts should be viewed as a bench mark for this council and mayors job performance. The second job performance criteria will be found on page/sheet 11 , line 6A of the annual town budget.
http://www.vernontwp.com/egov/docs/1296502424_981445.pdf
http://www.vernontwp.com/egov/docs/1276027914_17578.pdf
http://www.vernontwp.com/egov/docs/1312820490_395507.pdf
One of the bench marks that can be used to gauge the effectiveness of the current government is the employee contracts. Currently the town employees have more holidays ( 14 total ) than any other government employee in NJ. Municipal employees have increased their pay over the last 7 years by 21.75% and also increasing their fringe benefits. What makes the increases hard to understand is that while these salaries were increasing the population that pays for them was dwindling and the number of total employees was increasing. Now if you add a dwindling population and a dwindling tax base ( loss in property values ) then you have the beginning of a perfect tax storm.
Fortunately the governor has a soft cap of property tax increases. Exemptions to the cap are pension, health and debt payments which allows the government to shift payments into debt which then gets them out of the cap guidelines. The new guidelines also prohibit municipal governments from entering into contracts that would necessitate increasing property taxes above 2%. Now if you raise employees salaries by more than 2% then the effect on future municipal budgets will be interesting.
Labor Contracts for AFCME and UAW 2005 to 2011
Contract 2005-2008
1. 3% salary increase per year ( 2005,2006, & 2007)
2. 15 Sick days
3. 12 to 25 vacation days
4. 4 personal days
5. 13 Holidays
6. Health insurance and Life insurance
Changes under new Contract 08 -11
1. Salary Increases 2008 2.75%, 2009 3%, 210 3.5%, 2011 3.5% Professional Contract ( AFCME)
2. Extra Holiday ( Christmas Eve) total now is 14 days
3. Tuition reimbursement added to this contract (can be used during the work day and the employee will be compensated as if they worked.)
4. Extend the contract from 3 years to 4 years
5. Longevity pay clause has been removed ( prior contract stopped longevity pay for anyone hire after 1996 and longevity payments was limited to $4,000. per year for those employees)
6. Defined the work day for DPW workers as 06:30AM to 3:00PM ( prior contract allowed DPW MGR to set the work hours)
7. Remove step three of the grievance procedure ( this step allowed the employee to petition the mayor and council)
8. Starting January 1, 2010 for the professional contract and January 1, 2008 for the non professional contract. Any new employees will receive an ARRP policy for their Retirement health care benefits not covered by Medicare.
9. Capped the payment of unused sick days a $5,500. when retiring.
10. Non Professional Contract (UAW) gets 2.5% per year salary increases.
11. Increase Tool and Clothing reimbursement by $250. per year
Fortunately the governor has a soft cap of property tax increases. Exemptions to the cap are pension, health and debt payments which allows the government to shift payments into debt which then gets them out of the cap guidelines. The new guidelines also prohibit municipal governments from entering into contracts that would necessitate increasing property taxes above 2%. Now if you raise employees salaries by more than 2% then the effect on future municipal budgets will be interesting.
Labor Contracts for AFCME and UAW 2005 to 2011
Contract 2005-2008
1. 3% salary increase per year ( 2005,2006, & 2007)
2. 15 Sick days
3. 12 to 25 vacation days
4. 4 personal days
5. 13 Holidays
6. Health insurance and Life insurance
Changes under new Contract 08 -11
1. Salary Increases 2008 2.75%, 2009 3%, 210 3.5%, 2011 3.5% Professional Contract ( AFCME)
2. Extra Holiday ( Christmas Eve) total now is 14 days
3. Tuition reimbursement added to this contract (can be used during the work day and the employee will be compensated as if they worked.)
4. Extend the contract from 3 years to 4 years
5. Longevity pay clause has been removed ( prior contract stopped longevity pay for anyone hire after 1996 and longevity payments was limited to $4,000. per year for those employees)
6. Defined the work day for DPW workers as 06:30AM to 3:00PM ( prior contract allowed DPW MGR to set the work hours)
7. Remove step three of the grievance procedure ( this step allowed the employee to petition the mayor and council)
8. Starting January 1, 2010 for the professional contract and January 1, 2008 for the non professional contract. Any new employees will receive an ARRP policy for their Retirement health care benefits not covered by Medicare.
9. Capped the payment of unused sick days a $5,500. when retiring.
10. Non Professional Contract (UAW) gets 2.5% per year salary increases.
11. Increase Tool and Clothing reimbursement by $250. per year
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