Council rejects Vernon budget

VERNON — The Vernon Township Council on Monday night rejected Mayor Harry Shortway's proposed 2017 budget, telling him to review the figures again with an eye to cuts.
Introduced last month, the budget called for $24.8 million in appropriations and $8.3 million in revenue. That would have left $16.5 million to be raised through taxes, amounting to an increase of nearly $50 per year for the average household.
Though Shortway argued the upward creep was due to unavoidable increases in insurance and pension payments, but faced pushback on Monday from both residents and a majority of council members. Councilwoman Sandra Ooms said the council owed it to the residents to ask the mayor to go back and at least try to make some small cuts in good faith.
“I know you worked hard on this budget...but it needs to be looked at again,” Ooms said. “We're advocating for the taxpayer here. I don't want to pay increased taxes myself. The people that spoke, they carry heavy (sewer) rate bills, the lake has their dam bills, people have their condo fees, which is adding up … So in good faith, I feel it needs to be reduced to show the taxpayer that you are working so hard on it.”
Ooms was seconded by Councilmen Patrick Rizzuto and Dick Wetzel, who said the amount presented was “too much.” Wetzel acknowledged “you can't get blood out of a stone, but you can try.”
To allow the government to keep functioning in lieu of an approved budget, the council passed an emergency temporary appropriations ordinance. That measure appropriates one-twelfth of last year's budget so the government can continue to pay its bills in the short term until another budget is introduced.
MUA sewer measure moves aheadThe council also passed a resolution on Monday endorsing a plan amendment to the Vernon Township Wastewater Management Plan for the Route 94 corridor and McAfee areas of town.
Rizzuto said the “resolution does not commit the township to any money expenditures,” nor does it “commit the township to any growth in terms of adding to the sewer infrastructure. It merely allows the (Municipal Utilities Authority) to do what they have been asked to do by their mission, by their charter.”
In addition to Rizzuto, Wetzel and Ooms voted in favor of the measure.
Ooms explained after the meeting the resolution will allow the MUA to to submit a sewer plan for the specified areas to the State Department of Environmental Protection, which will determine whether sewers would be permitted in those areas. Once the DEP makes a decision, Ooms said she would expect the next step would be a cost-benefit analysis from the MUA before that body comes to the council to ask for funds for new sewer construction. The measure will allow the MUA to bring together all necessary information so the council can make an informed decision about funding any potential sewer expansion down the line, she said.
The resolution was passed over objections from Council President Jean Murphy and Councilman Dan Kadish.
Murphy said the resolution — which cited a DEP approved plan and letter of support from the county Board of Health that weren't attached for the council's review — was incomplete and rushed ahead of a scheduled April 20 joint meeting between the MUA and council to hash out the sewer issue. Kadish similarly criticized the passage of the measure as backing of a “non-plan to be made up in the future.”