Cost Conscious Red Bank Can't Avoid Budget Increase

During a budget Tuesday night, Business Administrator Stanley Sickles thanked Red Bank's various department heads for all their help in keeping their budgets flat, trimming the fat where they could and figuring out how to do more with less.

Then there's the bad news.

Despite their best efforts it's unlikely the residents of Red Bank will escape without a tax increase this year. With a week until the council votes on a finalized budget, Red Bank is facing an increase in its budget, as well as an increase in taxes. The borough's preliminary budget is $20.773 million and includes a more than $841,000 increase over last year's figure.

The bogey man in this budget battle is Red Bank's insurance for its employees. The borough's premiums have jumped about $463,000 this year and account for more than 50 percent of the tax increase.

"We're still haggling with our insurance people, we're trying to find out, one, how it went up so much, and tow, what we can do to lower it," Sickles said.

Currently Red Bank participates in a joint insurance fund along with several other municipalities. When the borough joined the fund some years ago it did so to avoid exactly this situation. Sickles said the goal was to be a part of an insurance program that eliminated high profit margins. Still, if this is the best the borough's insurance can do it may be time to look elsewhere.

Sickles said the borough is not only working with its current provider to find ways to lower its premiums, but is considering modified plans - especially when it comes to the 100 or so retired employees it covers - and is considering making a switch to another provider, possibly to the state's plan, should costs not come down.

It's unclear if any of it will matter, at least for this budget period.

Red Bank's budget includes a tax levy of $11.621 million and a municipal tax rate of 53.2 cents per $100 of assessed value, a 2.3 cent increase over last year's tax rate. The owner of a house assessed at $401,000 - the average assessed value in Red Bank - would see a $94 tax increase should the rate remain the same. Property owners must also pay county and local school taxes, in addition to the municipal taxes.

If there's public concern over the tax increase it's hard to gauge. Like last year, the borough's budget presentation was poorly attended by the public - or rather not attended by the public. One resident showed up to listen to the presentation - council candidate Sue Viscomi.

Still, borough officials say they're working to reduce the budget. Should that fight yields any results the public will know on April 25 when it's finalized.