Bernardsville Borough Budget Expected to Stay Within 2% Cap

The increase in the amount of taxpayer contributions in a draft version of the 2013 Bernardsville municipal budget will fall within the state-imposed 2 percent cap limitation, even if the budget must absorb some major costs this year, the Bernardsville Borough Council was told on Monday.

Bernardsville Borough Administrator Ralph Maresca said the budget is due to be introduced at the April 8 council meeting, with a public hearing and adoption vote targeted for the May 13 meeting.

Maresca declined to release many figures from the budget document, which he described as "still a work-in-progress," that he passed out to council members on Monday.

However, he did said that the amount in the budget to be raised by taxes remains within the 2 percent cap, and does not seek any waivers for extra expenditures that are permitted outside the cap.

After the meeting, Maresca said the amount that was raised by taxes in 2012's municipal budget was an $8.9 million taxpayer contribution toward a total municipal budget of $11.1 million for last year.

He said the amount of the state aid in the budget for this year is $662,172, the same as last year's figure.

One of the big expenses in this year's budget is the first of five $500,000 payments toward the borough's costs nd causing a prolonged power outage that lasted weeks for some after the Oct. 29 storm.

Maresca said the borough's total cost for Sandy was about $2.5 million. However, he said Monday night that Bernardsville — which has filed an application for help from the Federal Emergency Management Agency — expects to be reimbursed for about $2 million of that amount.

A major expense for the borough was a townwide collection along public roads in which an outside contractor, accompanied by the public works department, collected all logs and vegetative debris that were supposed to be Sandy-related.

Maresca said good news is that $335,000 in debt has been retired for this year, with another $100,000 on the horizon for next year.

But he said the budget also had to absorb a $100,000 increase in pension costs since 2012, along with increases in employee health benefits.

Maresca said that there are no reductions in services in this year's budget, and he praised municipal departments for keeping costs down.

He said he would answer more specific questions about budget figures after the spending plan is introduced in April.