Westfield's $49 Million Municipal Budget Includes Tax Increase

WESTFIELD, NJ — Westfield's Town Council revealed the 2022 municipal budget at last week's meeting, as well as a slight tax increase. However, officials said this increase will not be too drastic for residents.

Finance Chair Councilwoman Linda Habgood introduced this year's $49 million municipal budget at last Tuesday's meeting, which includes a 1.98 percent tax increase. In total, this tax increase means the average household will pay an additional $4 per month, or about $48 per year.

Business Administrator Jim Gildea told Patch that based on a projected municipal rate of $0.359 per $100 of assessed valuation, the owner of a home assessed at the town’s average value of $806,800 would pay $2,896.41 in town taxes in 2022. But this is not final until certified by the county mid-year.

Habgood showed a breakdown of where local tax dollars go with a pie chart, explaining that the town retained about 16 percent of total collections from last year's taxes; this amounted to about $29 million for the town. In comparison, the school district received about 60 percent of the total taxes, which was about $108 million.

"The tax levy is only a portion of the revenue stream that comes into the town," Habgood said. "We're not only looking at how monies will be spent from dollars collected from taxpayers, but we're also looking how we'll spend revenue that comes in through a lot of other sources that the town has."

Despite COVID-19 related revenue challenges, Gildea said the town was able to generate $3.6 million in surplus in 2021, resulting in a $9.4 million surplus balance available in 2022.

However, Gildea said parking and court revenues were most negatively impacted by COVID-19, with continued shortfalls expected in 2022.

"2022 was a tough year, this budget year," Gildea said. "We had a lot of expenditures come our way that we couldn't really control, which is very common."

Gildea explained that statutory or required expenditures for costs like health insurance, pensions, social security, utilities and the Rahway Valley Sewage Authority went up $900,000. Gildea said this is a significant increase all by itself.

Salary and wages also went up $450,000, and operating expenditures went up $490,000.

The budget uses about $1.53 million in American Rescue Plan funding to cover these revenue losses, as well as COVID recovery, stormwater management and to bring Memorial Pool back to strong financial footing.

But in terms of bright spots, the Conservation Center generated more revenue for the town because of increased usage and increased permit sales of styrofoam, scrap metal and more.

Revenue from construction permits have also increased, according to Gildea. He said more residents are adding kitchens, redoing basements, backyards and housing, which all helps generate revenue for the town.

In addition, Westfield is set to receive about $3 million in state aid, which is the same allocation it has been awarded since 2010, according to the presentation.

Westfield also has $3.2 million in capital budget that will cover a variety of local projects. This includes significant road paving, park improvements, major drainage improvements (stream cleanings in Mindowaskin Park and Fairview), public safety improvements and technology and building enhancements.

For those interested in learning more, the full budget presentation can be found here.

A public hearing to adopt the budget is scheduled for April 26, and the public can attend the meeting at 7 p.m. in the Mayor's Conference Room or watch the livestream on Facebook

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