Est one, two, three. So it's on Sorry. >> I mean, that's bizarre. $3,000. That's not his first one, though. Best one too. >> Test. Let's
get this I'm sorry. >> Is it warm in here, >> Jew? Is that cold air up in the mountain where you live? Too cold or hot? Fun. Yeah. Half master.
>> Glad we do a practice session. >> It's still full. This is this is a simple freaking get it. Looks good. You know, I
Yeah. >> Okay. >> Actually, actually What's that? Lori, is my speaker too loud? Seems like it's an echo. >> Is that better? It's the same.
>> I'm told because you guys Okay. Yep. Ready. Good evening. I appreciate this opportunity to present the 2026 budget for the burrow of Horththornne as prepared by the administration, CFO,
finance committee. I will move through this presentation and take time to explain challenges we face in 2026 and key components of the budget. For those of you who wish to follow along at home, both this presentation and a copy of the
budget being proposed for introduction are now online at www.horththornj.org. So, let's get started. Rather than keep people in suspense, I'm going to dive right into and tell you the tax increase will be 2.9% down from
4.5% in 2025. This increase results from a combination of four factors. Negative factors, health benefit costs increases, pension increases. Positive factors, solid waste and recycling,
competitive pricing resulting in no increase over the next 5 years. To go into more detail about these cost increases, Pake Valley sewer is up 5.83%. The state health benefits a monumental
40%. The total increase to the tax levy is just under $539,000. This past fall, we bid a new contract for disposal of garbage to replace the expiring contract. This bid and
subsequent contract results in a small reduction in cost when we are anticipating when we were anticipating a 20 to 25% increase. The combined increase for these two items amount to $539,000
increase to the tax levy. Without these increases, the tax rate increase would have been a mere 26%. Fortunately, even as a result of those cost increases, the municipal tax rate
will increase by a modest 2.69% 69% this year or an increase of 2 cents per $100 of assessed value, resulting in an increase for an average homeowner of $76, down from $122
from 2025. This increase makes the municipal tax bill $2,917 for the average homeowner. The largest share of these taxes go go to fund our
our fine police department. But a host of other services are funded as well. Road maintenance and repaving, collection of garbage, recycling, yard waste and leaves, sewer service, maintenance of shade trees, our library,
our recreation and health services. The taxes also help support our volunteer fire department and ambulance corps. Despite the tax increases, the municipal share of our property tax bill in
Horththornne remains less than a quarter of the overall property tax bill, slightly larger than the county share. The largest share is from the schools. Neither the county nor the schools shares are under the control of the
mayor and council. Using its 23% share, the bureau funds the wide range of services that our residents expect and enjoy. Where does our general budget fund revenue come from? 69% of the budget is
funded by taxes, including those received on a delinquent basis. State aid represents a significant but declining share of revenue. The second largest revenue source is our budget is is our budget is surplus. 12% of the
amount is used to fund one-time costs in a budget so that they won't impact taxes with the rest going to the support of the general operations. Antenna rents, mostly for tenants on the
Long View water tower, have been one revenue that we've been able to increase over the years. With the long long view tank now fully occupied, this revenue cannot grow much further.
Where does the money go? This chart shows how current fund expenditures are allocated in the budget. Employee salaries and benefits account for 49.2% of the total with our police protection
accounting for the biggest part of this. Our wonderful library and our garbage and recycling services comprise significant portions of our expenditures as does source services. >> It's not displayed. >> Yeah. Because and that's that's because
of this attic. Yeah. I got to figure it out. >> The state of New Jersey has imposed caps both on spending by municipalities and on their tax levies in Horththornne. It has been prudent fi fiscal practice that
have have and will continue to control our taxes. We are below our appropriations cap and we are allowing 1.3 million in taxing authority to expire rather than further increasing the taxes.
The burrow remains in good fiscal health. Our tax base is stable with a slight increase of 0.04% in 2026. The tax collections remain strong at over 99%. and we retain a healthy fund balance,
which gives us better interest rates when we borrow money for capital projects. The bureau uses grants to minimize the amount we need to borrow to maintain and improve our infrastructure. Projects planned for funding in 2026
include road paving and curb cuts and curbs 1,800,000 sidewalk and driveway aprons $428,000 owners to be assessed local aid NJ do $852,200
grants $770,000 the water utility budget is just over $7 million and is totally self-supporting with the fees charged to customers. $500,000 of water funds surplus will be used to pay off the portion of the
construction loan for our PAS treatment system prior to the permanent lowinterest loan being finalized through the New Jersey Infrastructure Bank. A major cost and one that will be reoccurring is our periodic
replacement of the media in the PAS treatment facilities. This year the media is being replaced at a cost of $380,000. Capital improvement projects mandated by the state for PAS treatment and for
replacement of water service lines has caused a need for large rate increases. In 2026, rates will increase 5%. Which is, however, down from 9% in 2025. The water utility also has its own
capital budget. Replacement of the galvanized water service lines with copper is a project mandated by the state, which began in 2022 and will be ongoing through 2031. The bond ordinance to appropriate money for phases three
and four was adopted this year so that no additional appropriations is necessary this year. This year's budget is somewhat larger than the last year's. A rel a relative increase of $538,857
from 2025 which compares to a $1.5 million increase. The average tax bill for homeowners is up $76 compared to $122 in 2025.
In conclusion, what I've presented tonight is a budget that addresses the realistic costs of what it takes to run the burrow of Horththornne to provide the various services we all expect and to keep up with our infrastructure needs. At the same time, we are being
mandated by the state to spend money for our water utility to meet the new, more robust environmental laws and regulations. I have worked with my entire administration, our new burrow administrator Vince Caruso, finance
director Lorie Lori Foley, our department heads and our boards and commissions to craft this budget which was then reviewed in detail by our dedicated council finance committee. This budget therefore is a result of a
collaborative effort. I urge the council to vote to introduce the budget tonight and then adopt it on May 6th. Thank you everyone for your attention. >> 10 minutes almost did it. >> Yeah,
it was easy. Thank you. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Let me let me look at her computer. Is it important enough?
Now you can everybody stay still. That's a little