Caldwell $11.5M Budget Includes 1.4 Percent Tax Increase

Expect your Caldwell tax bill to increase in 2013. 

The Caldwell Borough Council introduced a $11,532,789 municipal budget on Tuesday that included 1.4 percent tax hike. This means the average Caldwell home assessed at $421,455 will pay about $42 more in municipal taxes than in 2012. 

While taxes will rise, the overall 2013 budget actually fell by more than $400,000 from last year. “We fine-tuned the budget,” said Borough Administrator Paul Carelli, who attributed the tax increase to a drop in borough revenues. 

“We did have increases in the budget, but we also cut somethings from the budget,” said Carelli. “The increase is primarily because we have less revenues this year.” 

There was also a slight decrease in budgeted salaries, which was credited to two employee retirements, three expected retirements and two unfilled vacancies, said Carelli. Municipal employees will also receive a yet-to-be determined increase in their salaries — the first in four years. 

Council members were mum on the introduced budget at Tuesday’s council meeting expect Council President Richard Hauser, who unveiled a laundry list of criticisms and questions about proposed increases in everything from janitorial supplies to telephone bills. 

“I feel strongly that we still can do better in some areas,” said Hauser about the budget. “From my perspective ... I see a lot of lines where there’s opportunities to save dollars.”  

Many of the departmental budget increases were put in place as contingency funds, said the borough administrator, and will become surplus if they are not used. Carelli also warned about under budgeting in areas such as overtime. 

“If you budget exactly for every department,’ said Carelli, "we could have something happen ... so we need a little bit of flexibility." 

Councilman John Coyle also took issue with Carelli’s method of contingency planning. 

“There are a lot of contingencies in this budget ... in anticipation of events happening” said Coyle, “and I think we need to come up with a reasonable multiplier for how we get to those numbers.”