Sussex trims municipal budget

State aid to the rescue and lower high school taxes help, too SUSSEX — Thanks to $90,000 in extraordinary aid it’s receiving from the State of New Jersey — combined with line-item cost-cutting efforts — Sussex Borough residents should only see a 2 percent increase in their municipal taxes this year. However, after factoring in County taxes and taxes that support the two regional school districts, borough taxpayers should be looking at an overall decrease. The bottom line: a net $24 tax decrease per $100,000 of assessed property, according to Sussex Borough Clerk Catherine Gleason. Overall, the amount of money to be raised through municipal taxes will rise from $600,454 in 2008 to $614,080 for 2009, said Gleason. But thanks to an 8.17 percent reduction in taxes borough residents must pay to High Point Regional High School this year, taxpayers should end up seeing an overall 0.024 percent drop in their tax rate this year, she said. Late notice and a revision After being notified by the state on Aug. 7 about the extraordinary aid it’s set to receive this year, Sussex Borough Council met on Aug. 13 to revisit its budget. The council had approved a preliminary budget on March 31 that would have called for a 30 percent tax hike, absent any state aid. But borough officials stated at the time that the tentative budget was merely a placeholder in order to meet state requirements for the council to vote on a municipal budget by the end of March. After Sussex Borough officials were forced to impose a 20 percent rate hike for its water and sewer customers earlier this year, the council “worked hard to bring the (municipal) budget down,” said Gleason. The utility increases were driven by a $150,000 increase in wastewater processing fees charged by the Sussex County Municipal Utilities Authority. Plus, approximately one-third of the utility’s costs go towards debt service payments.