Council introduces 2-cent tax increase to pay twp. bills
Resolution is first official action of four new council members
BY CHRIS GAETANO Staff Writer

EDISON- Township residents may be receiving a slightly heftier tax bill the next time around, after the Township Council during a special meeting on Jan. 3 introduced a resolution that would increase the levy to $1.01 per $100 of assessed property value, an increase of 2 cents.

For fourmembers of the township council- Dr. Sudhanshu Prasad,Melissa Perilstein, Ann Marie Griffin-Ussak andWayne Mascola - it was their first official actions as new members of the council.

Councilman Robert Diehl, who was chosen to be council president during this year's reorganizationmeeting, said the resolution's passage would not indicate that an official budget has been adopted or amended.According to Diehl, the township has to generate revenue in order to pay its bills, but that in order to do so, the resolution setting the estimated tax rate needs to be passed.

"We have to send the tax bills out and do it in a timely fashion. … What we do is estimate what we think will be pretty close to what the tax levy is going to be. It's not etched in stone," said Diehl.

"The only reason we had a specialmeeting was because we ran out of time," he added later.

The latest round of tax bills needs to be sent out by Jan. 11 to allow revenue to be received by the township.

Diehl downplayed the significance of the action, saying that it was a routine procedure that serves to take care of the township's immediate financial needs while the larger question of the official budget still looms. The township will attempt to raise about $19 million in tax revenue this quarter, with the latest increase taken into account.

Jerry Barca, communications director for the township, said pension obligations were a large factor behind the need for the resolution, noting that this item had risen significantly.

This is not the first time within a year the township has introduced an estimated tax increase to pay for outstanding financial obligations. According to Councilman Anthony Massaro, a similar, 7.5-cent, temporary tax increase was approved in August. Combined, the two increases would result in a 9-cent jump in the tax levy since the last budget.

Members of the previous Township Council, over the last few months, had vigorously objected to a lack of concrete lineitem details about the proposed budget, which had been formally introduced in September in order to meet the deadline for state municipal aid. Without in-depth justifications for the $115 million proposed budget, it was reasoned, how can one be expected to make a reasonable decision when voting on it? Massaro and Councilwoman Antonia Ricigliano used this line of reasoning to explain their opposition to last night's increase, saying that temporary and necessary as the tax increase may be, they still didn't know what exactly it was that they were expected to be voting for. They were the only two council members to vote against it.

"Without the budget details, we have nowhere to go. … I'm not sure what they want us to do," said Ricigliano, who also wondered aloud why this could not have been taken care of earlier if people had known for months that there was no adopted budget.

Diehl, who supported the resolution, Ricigliano and Massaro are the three council members returning from last year.

According to Diehl, the actual budget, complete with line-item details, will be available "two weeks down the line." Until then, however, the township still has bills that need to be paid, and the resolution authorizing the tax increase is how it can be done.

Barca said the tax increase and the budget are related, but still separate items. He said the bills that need to be paid immediately will be done through this resolution, not through the proposed budget, which has yet to be formally adopted. He did note, however, that the estimated tax rate and the mayor's proposed tax levy strongly correlate.

New Councilwoman Melissa Perilstein said that when the details finally come, she'll be exercising her due diligence and inspecting the proposed budget carefully. Until then, however, she felt it was a good idea to pass the temporary tax increase in order to fund the town's operations.

"I think that this [resolution] was just, I feel, a procedural thing. We don't have a backup for the budget, and certainly I ama taxpayer in the town. I will be sure to domy due diligence once we get to a full tax plan. This was just an estimated tax rate to get the bills out. Once we get all the backup information, we can sift through and analyze it," said Perilstein.

Meeting regulars disliked the resolution's passage, echoing Massaro and Ricligliano's concerns over the lack of detailed information on the budget. Bill Stevens, a former council candidate, said the 2 percent tax increase, along with the 7 percent increase inAugust, was a way for the administration to ease a larger-than-palatable tax increase into the public little by little.