Municipal Taxes Rising In Howell's $64.28M Budget For 2025

HOWELL, NJ — Howell Township introduced its 2025 municipal budget on Tuesday, a $64.28 million spending plan that includes a property tax increase of about $109 per year for the average home, officials said.

The increase in the tax levy, from $33,165,788 in 2024 to $35,715,022 — a rise of $2,549,634, or 7.69 percent — was primarily driven by a loss of one-time state aid, the end of COVID relief aid, contractual increases in salaries, increases in pension costs and increasing costs for health benefits, township manager Joseph Clark said.

While the tax rate is increasing, the township's ratables also have increased nearly 11 percent, to $12.18 million. The average home assessment rose 9.76 percent from $542,965 in 2024 to $595,943 in 2025, Clark said. The municipal tax rate for 2025 is 29.3 cents per $100 of assessed value, he said.

The budget in brief, along with the sewer budget, can be seen on the town's website. Clark went through a more expanded look at the budget before the tentative budget was approved during the April 1 council meeting. You can watch it below; it begins about 1 hour, 58 minutes into the meeting.

"Short of cutting our force there isn't a lot we can do to manage that (the salary and benefits increases)," Clark said. "We budget around that understanding that we run very lean and we want to keep the very best people we can here."

"I know no one wanted an increase but it’s tough to deliver a flat rate," Leggio said.

Leggio in particular highlighted efforts of Police Chief John Storrow to bring down overtime costs and "really cut back" the police budget, which is one of the largest expenses for the town.

"He really did his due diligence," Leggio said.

While the municipal tax rate is increasing, Clark said the town is continuing to look at ways to improve services and activities offered in the town, such as festivals and family events.

The town also is looking at potential redevelopment agreements along Route 9 and Route 33 to increase commercial ratables, he said.

Other plans for 2025, Clark said, are efforts to find and purchase parcels to protect open space, revising rental ordinances to have better control over rentals in town, and to plant more trees and restore habitat to reduce mowing needs, trimming labor and gasoline costs.

The township also has applied for a grant to install solar panels on the roof at town hall and canopies over the parking areas at town hall. The building's roof is reaching the point where it needs to be replaced, Clark said, making it a good time to put solar panels on with a new roof.

The hope is solar panels would generate anywhere from several hundred thousand to more than a million dollars in cost savings over the life of the panels, he said.