Village Council Introduces Budget Despite Walsh's 'No' Vote

With Tuesday night's vote, the $45 million Ridgewood municipal budget has formally been introduced though not all members of the council felt it should have been.

The would increase taxes $131 on the average resident with a home assessed at $794,550, a 3.79 percent rate of increase. are planned and the library is expected to be open year-round thanks to an additional $100,000 appropriation.

Councilwoman Bernadette Walsh – a corporate relocation consultant in the real estate industry – was the lone 'no' vote on the dais Tuesday night. 

"One, I want further time to analyze it," Walsh said after the meeting when asked of her reasons to vote against the introduced budget. "Two, I disagree with some of the numbers on the appropriations. Three, I have done my own individual analysis on what I think will happen with and I think we can potentially have a loss of more than $1 million in the next year."

Asked what appropriations she disagreed with, Walsh said she "didn't want to talk about it."

The officials arrived at a 3.79 percent municipal tax increase , cutting about about a million dollars from virtually all departments.

The introduced budget allocates funding toward watershed protection efforts, street resurfacing and recreation facility improvements. Debt service will be reduced by about $200,000 in 2012.

Expense Increases

The largest expense increases are felt in health care obligations (5.5 percent), the tax assessor's office (9.7 percent) as well as contractual police salaries (6.4 percent).

The largest hit, however, came in the form of , which are pegged at $1.2 million. Much of the costs will be reimbursed through FEMA and insurance refunds but its impact on taxpayers in 2012 will still be felt.

Village CFO Steven Sanzari said $56 of the $131 increase is directly attributed to storm costs and a loss in property values.

Reassessment impact

To mitigate the impacts of record tax appeals – there was a 21 percent increase going into this budget worth $1.4 million – the village will be undertaking a reassessment in 2012.

Walsh was suspect of the assessment figures, stating the losses in the upcoming year could be up to two points higher than projected, "which is my concern with the budget."

In response, Sanzari said it takes about six months or longer from appeal filings to refunds issued, which leads to a "lag time".

"If the village sustains a significant refund of that size, you could basically do an emergency appropriation where the state allows you to do a deferred charge over three-to-five years to pay back those losses," Sanzari said.

"It wouldn't eliminate appeals," Village Assessor Mike Barker said during a budget hearing. "What it does is eliminate exposure."

The village has $40 million in assessed valuation in jeopardy, and has a total of $6 billion in assessed value. Ridgewood's highest assessed property – the office building across the  – is appealing its assessment, currently at $27 million.

The next step

The budget process is not quite over yet. The council has "some leeway" in tinkering, Village Manager Ken Gabbert said. It can also continue discussions in upcoming work sessions before the June 26 public meeting, where residents can speak on the budget.