Tax Increase Approved In Bernards Township 2025 Budget

BASKING RIDGE, NJ — With a continued focus on public safety and maintaining all of the Township's infrastructure and equipment, the Township Committee unanimously approved its 2025 budget, which includes a tax increase for residents.

"The commitment to fiscal responsibility by the Township employees and the Township Committee - it's amazing how much dedication and efficiency is really put into the budget," said Mayor Janice Fields. "I am proud of this budget and thankful we were able to put more money in capital, and the [tax] levy didn’t change."

Bernards Township Chief Financial Officer Sean McCarthy presented this year's $48.5 million municipal budget at the Tuesday Township Committee meeting, which includes a $0.253 municipal services tax rate decrease.

This year's municipal tax rate went down 6.19 percent from last year's $0.269.

A home assessed in 2025 at $871,769 will pay $88 more per year than last year or $2,202 for the municipal services portion of the tax bill. The 2024 municipal services portion of the tax bill was $2,114 for an average assessed home in the Township.

The budget also includes around $7.5 million allocated for the capital budget.

"One of the primary goals for this year’s budget was to continue to build our capital program funding to maintain the township's infrastructure moving forward," said McCarthy. "One of the things we were very happy to see in this year’s budget is that we are effectively increasing the budget-funded capital program over the last few years."

Committee woman Ana Duarte-McCarthy noted that from the capital budget "a pretty significant chunk goes toward our road projects. We are going to be making upgrades to the Warren Craft Room technology, I think that's terrific."

She also added that money from the capital will also be allocated for police body worn cameras and the purchase of a second drone.

"That's going to continue to emphasize our importance on safety and security," said Duarte-McCarthy.

Overall, the budget is up 3.76 percent from last year's budget of $46,774,536 to $48,534,609 for 2025.

The main pressures driving that increase include:

• Statutory increase to the library tax levy of 10.86 percent
• Employee health benefits increasing 16 percent
• Liability and worker comp premiums are increasing 4.3 percent
• Funding for expanded public safety initiatives for an increase to the police department budget of 6.3 percent
• Overall inflationary operating cost increases on all operating budgets

Before the budget presentation, Committeewoman Jennifer Asay stressed the importance of bringing in more ratables and businesses to town to help taxpayers.

"We must lessen the burden on our residential taxpayers. Cutting costs in the municipal budget is not the solution to the imbalance problem, especially in light of the budget issues for other entities, especially the Board of Education," said Asay. "We need to be proactively active to address this imbalance. The solution is to attract commercial businesses to existing commercial locations that are vacant or underutilized."

The final budget was ultimately unanimously approved by the Township Committee.

"I think it's a responsible budget, and since I’ve been on the Township Committee the growth is unavoidable. That's been well managed and maintained," said Committeeman Andrew McNally. "And it stands in stark contrast to the state budget."

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