Teaneck Approves Budget After Calls for Cuts

The Teaneck Township Council voted 4-1 Tuesday to approve the town's $69.1 million budget amid repeated calls from residents to make spending cuts.

The budget was mostly unchanged from when it was introduced in March. The 2013 spending plan includes a $53.4 million tax levy. A homeowner assessed at the town's $452,622 average is set to pay $3,949 in taxes. The library tax, separate from the municipal figure, went up $171.09.

A $2.2 million chunk of the budget first allocated to covering a flood of successful property tax appeals was removed after the state's Local Finance Board granted Teaneck permission to issue refunding bonds over three years.

Some residents have continually called on the council to slash spending.

"We can have come before you time and time again and talked about the stress that people feel, the amount of homes that are in foreclosure, and it doesn't sound like you heard us," resident Art Vatsky told the council. 

Howard Rose pointed to what he said were "extravagant" projects of renovating the town's former police station and proposed upgrades to soccer fields at Votee Park.

"There's been no vote of any rescinding of any line items on the budget at a time when we should see slash and gash, when it should be lean and mean," Rose, a township resident, said.

Deputy Mayor Adam Gussen, the sole council member to vote against the budget, said the township should explore staffing changes and review if municipal services could be delivered more efficiently.

Gussen said the township should conduct a study of police staffing and investigate hiring "special" police officers, which are generally paid far less than full-time officers and lack benefits.

The town should also look to find cost savings in its paid fire department, Gussen said.

"I think we need to take a look at augmenting our existing professional fire force with an incubator for a volunteer fire force in Teaneck that can grow as attrition happens in our fire department," Gussen said.

Efforts to attract ratables to Teaneck were often met with resistance from residents who worried the development would reshape the town, he said.

"Ultimately, the Teaneck that we want to save is the Teaneck that we can no longer afford," the deputy mayor said.

Councilman Mark Schwartz said residents have come to expect a high level of town services, specifically from Teaneck's public safety agencies.

"There is no crime wave because of our police department," Schwartz said. "There are no mass fire casualties because of our fire department."

Cuts are often unpopular and draw crowds of opposition, Councilwoman Lizette Parker said. Parker also noted the quick response of firefighters to recent house fires.

"Although it's very difficult to move forward with this budget I recognize the fact that there's value in it," Parker said.

Mayor Mohammed Hameeduddin said the Votee Park fields project was long overdue. The town should work to attractive development to ease the tax burden, he said.

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