Municipal Budget Includes $110 Tax Increase For Average Homeowner

The Fort Lee Borough Council adopted its 2012 municipal budget Thursday, with spending up 1.9 percent, and a tax levy increase of 1.86 percent over last year’s budget.

The total amount of money borough officials anticipate raising through taxation is roughly $58.7 million, and the total anticipated general appropriations for 2012 amount to slightly less than $69.4 million under the budget, which the Council adopted unanimously at their regular meeting.

“We believe it to be another solid budget; another solid financial period for this governing body,” said Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich. “The total tax increase in the levy is 1.86 percent—well below the threshold cap.”

That equates to $109.74 for the average homeowner with a home assessed at $465,000, according to borough auditor Steve Wielkotz.

“It’s $8 or $9 per month,” Sokolich said. “We would have liked for it to have been less, but we’re very, very happy with this number considering some of the fixed costs of which we have no control over.”

Sokolich then asked Wielkotz to highlight some of the provisions in the 2012 municipal budget.

“On the spending side—the appropriations—our increase is 1.9 percent,” Wielkotz said. “Basically that’s because of contractual increases for employees and increases in health benefits that obviously, as everybody’s aware, just continue to go up and go up and go up.”

Wielkotz also said officials recently undertook the third refunding of outstanding debt in 15 months, saving the borough $287,000 “in future interest costs.”

The total savings from refinancing bond debt at lower interest rates is more than $1 million, he said.

“And I think that will be reflected in future years’ budgets as well,” Wielkotz said.

Additionally, he said, Moody’s, the bond-rating agency used by the borough, recently reviewed Fort Lee for the third time.

“In their report that they issued a couple weeks ago, again they point out a number of positives for the Borough of Fort Lee: a strong tax base; a very, very strong and dedicated management, a Mayor and Council that have been and are on the right track in terms of controlling spending and controlling taxes in the borough,” Wielkotz said. “The flexibility that this Mayor and Council has created for this municipality in terms of being about $5 million under the 2 percent tax levy cap and over $4 million under the appropriation cap, thereby affording future councils the ability and flexibility that, God forbid, there needs to be additional appropriations in future budgets, we have the ability to provide that to the residents of Fort Lee.”

Former Republican candidate for Borough Council Martha Cohen however wasn’t convinced. She spent nearly 30 minutes grilling officials on specific line items in the budget.

After the meeting, Cohen spoke with Patch, summing up her problems with the budget.

“My problem is that there’s any increase at all,” Cohen said. “People are really hurting, and they can’t afford it.”

She also said, “Most of the money that was spent was for accrued absences for people who were leaving with $50,000 bonuses when they left. That’s what makes me crazy.”

Cohen broke down the Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey Direct Access Plan for active borough employees, for example, as follows:

"Since 2012 began, the average homeowner taxes have gone up $303, and if the school budget passes, it will be a total of $503," Cohen said in a subsequent email. "Second, much of the increases in this budget were for borough employees - salaries, increased medical (of which many workers don't even contribute 1.5%) and vacation accrual payouts of tens of thousands of dollars."

She posed the question, "Why aren't the Mayor and Council representing the hardworking resident that is dealing with ever increasing prices at the pump, supermarket and in the outrageous tolls that they didn't protest until it was too late?"

Below is a look at the 2012 municipal budget as adopted at Thursday’s regular meeting of the Fort Lee Mayor and Council:

Revenue and Appropriation Summaries

Balance of Outstanding Debt

To download the complete 2012 municipal budget, click here, visit the borough’s website or pick up a hard copy at .