these meetings long depend how long you make itly Verizon okay you can go ahead okay go ahead we're good all right we'll call the meeting to order public notice of this meeting pursuant to the open public meetings act has been given by the township Council in the following manner notifying the Township Clerk February
27th 2025 mailing notice to the carrier post Central record in burington County Times on February 27th 2025 posting notice of the on the official Municipal buting board on February 27th 2025 roll call Terry Mr Coffman here miss noon yes
Mr Simon sck yes Mr Zer yes mayor T Rico yes here all right this is the open regular meeting start our budget discussion start our discussion y all right okay so um the document that You' were provided
for this evening's discussion offers a comprehensive analysis of every Municipal bud budget line item uh it memorializes expenditures from 2017 to the present it outlines our actual spending for each department and highlights the annual spending Trends um just to provide some background on the
budgeting process and how it goes for you know the three that are new um each year in late October or early November the department heads begin preparing their budget proposals for the upcoming fiscal year they receive a budget worksheet that's similar to this document and are asked to assess their Department's needs and priorities then
following the their initial review I meet with the department heads to discuss their budget requests and then I identify their potential cost-saving measures we analyze any significant increases in expenditures we evaluate the justifications for all their changes and then explore the areas where reductions may be feasible once these
discussions are complete and adjustments have been made the requested budget figures are incorporated into the document by uh the CFO the version before you has already undergone substantial revisions I think three or four revisions we've done as the preliminary requ ests from the department heads well exceeded our
spending cap so that's why we uh you know we we massage it and get it down to where we can get it to after the CFO conducts uh her initial round of budget cuts the documents come back to me and I refer the review and make additional adjustments those adjustments are
identified and reflected in the initial adjustment column and then so this document that you heard that you have tonight basically just serves as a guide for us um to our Municipal spending while addressing the departmental needs and then allowing Council to see what we are spending and what the spending
Trends are um so that's my introduction to it I'm going to turn it over to Andy uh I know she has a bunch of things that she wants to explain and then we will definitely get some questions and and whatnot probably going to bore you a little sorry but um I prefer this the
the legal which I know smaller one I know I'm sorry yeah it's it's tinier uh print but it has um it's the legal budget so it's just for each department by salary and wage and other expenses and then um Pages 1 through
seven is the spending side of it page eight has the revenues that's why I like it it's the the complete document revenues and the expenditures I ask a quick question yeah the salary and wages does that not include the health insurance and the pension that's split
out separate that's separate yeah thank you yeah we'll see that uh I saw different line that's why I had asked the question okay makes sense yeah um health insurance is probably page two
yes page two page and then pensions are outside a cap so that's page four okay thank you so um this document that you have that you see right now the this is the one I'm going to refer to it's the uh 8
and a half by 14 eight pages um this is a calls for a 5.5 C increase as Sue mentioned um the initial numbers when I put them all in was more like a 10 cent so uh I I don't want to give you guys that that would that would stress you
out too much and it was exceeded the um spending cap so I have I had gone through and uh tweaked a bunch of things given it to Sue and then this is the version that you have right now it's at 5.5 which it's should equate to about a
$90 increase for the average assessed home of 162,000 before we begin the budget discussion and we look at the B budget spending in detail I wanted to spend some time to go over this like general in general information about the budget
to help you understand a little better the budget Draft before you um for 2025 is approximately $331,000 larger than the 2024 adopted budget if you look at page seven about three columns to the left of
the very right hand side of the page is the F final column and if you go across the total current budget under the final column it's 21, 214,000 72147 if you can see that and
then I think it's a few columns to the left of that you'll see uh 2024 and that was at adopted budget that was at 21,1 183 New Jersey budget law requires that we have a balance budget so if you look
at page eight that's the anticipated revenues and this on the F final column which is also three columns to the left of the very right hand inside you see final 2025 those are the revenues that I have in there that are supporting the
21.2 million doll budget I wanted to this is a part where I know I'm going to bore you but I just kind of wanted to go through each of the revenues so you have an idea what they are um I'll do it quick the uh Surplus we have is the 4.5 million that's
basically the town savings um we have 7.45 million we ended the year with so we're putting uh 4.5 in which is the same as 2024 alcohol licenses um we have licenses other those are like your bingo
bingo raffle business licenses or examples fees and permits those are like Planning and Zoning fees gun permits police fees fatal statistics Etc then we have court fees interested cost on taxes that's the interest when
people do not pay their taxes uh by the due dates interest on investments and deposits that's our uh interest for the funds sitting in the bank accounts Hotel occupancy fees that's a monthly fee uh monthly revenue from the
state based on the hotel taxes local fire safety fees your smoke detector non-life Hazard fire safety permits energy receipts that's the large one that is the state aid construction code fees we had share
services with the board of ed for one school SRO officer and four SOS then I just lumped together grants all in one line when you look at the large 8 and uh 11 by 17 you'll see all
the grants Broken Out In detail but for Revenue purposes I just throw the grants in one line then um uniform fire safety these are State revenues they just started coming in again late 2024 once the fire
Marshall's office was turned back over to the township reserve for municipal relief aid for the past two years the state has given us additional Aid which they called uh Municipal relief Aid and we were uh allowed to put those in the
budget we've not been told that there is any additional monies for 2025 so unfortunately I cannot anticipate anything then I have reserve for reval that was a one-time Revenue that we used in to help balance the 2024 budget and
to keep the tax increase lower and general Capital Surplus we use this as a budget revenue for the past two budgets 2023 we used 225,000 2024 we used 100,000 we still have 155,000
available to use if we want or we could save it to use in another year and then we have receipts from delinquent taxes those are the receipts uh that we'll get in this year for prior year tax bills that people had not paid
by the end of the year um all of these revenues currently total 7.96 million notice that this is down from 2024 which is uh seven columns to the left the total before local purpose tax
that was 8.66 million in 2024 in that budget we had more Grant monies plus we had used some one-time revenues that I mentioned previously the last item is the uh if you ignore the prior year I should have
crossed that out but it's a local purpose tax levy that's the amount that we're asking the taxpayers to provide in the local tax revenue to balance the budget for this current budget it's uh 13.2 million for
2025 and notice that in seven columns to the left it was two uh 12.5 in 2024 so when the revenues are higher all the other revenues are higher the levy or the amount that we ask the taxpayers for that's lower uh I just
wanted to show you this so you understand how we can decrease the local tax levy you have to increase the other revenues when we created the 2024 budget we were hoping that fire safety revenues would start coming in which they did so
we could add those to the 2025 budget we were also hoping that cannabis revenues would start coming in they had not done so yet so I just wanted to urge you to try to assist in getting those businesses open so that that those revenues can then come in in 2025 and be
a new Revenue source for the 2026 budget so of course uh cutting spending can also help bring down the tax levy but when one penny on the tax rate equals 33.3 th000 th000 then you begin
to see that you can't cut enough to get the tax increased drastically down we need additional revenues so in discussion with Todd the auditor who um helps us out uh with the budget he reminded us it's been a
long-standing practice of all previous managers here to defer school taxes up to the allowed amount of 50% of the school tax levy this is a book journal entry basically changes the classification of the amount payable for school taxes at the end of the year and
allows up to 50% to increase the Surplus balance this is allowed because we actually collect 100% of the school's tax levy during a calendar year but we only have to pay them one half of that Levy by the end of the calendar year since their year end is June 30th we pay
out the second half of the levy in the next calendar year I know that revenues uh residents have asked in the past why the balance of surplus has has been slightly flat or slightly decreasing over the past few years some of this is due to the fact that we did not utilize
this tool for increasing Surplus it was a conservative approach that I agreed with at the time but now that our Surplus balance is near the minimum that we have set in our Surplus policy and understanding that we have always taken this approach in the past I am rethinking this and feel that we should
defer a portion of the 1.77 million available to us and increase the Surplus we could use then use a portion of this additional Surplus to help the reduce the tax levy for the residents should you
choose the 2024 school levy is 31.2 million so we would be allowed to defer up to 50% of that which is 15.6 million we currently defer 13.8 million so that leaves the additional 1.77 million that
we could increase the Surplus up to that I recommend only deferring a portion of that amount as we should leave ourselves money available for use in future Years also it would leave us a cushion should the tax the school levy ever decrease as it has done uh during covid I think they
got a additional state aid so a possible option to decrease the impact on the taxpayers would be to defer more of the school tax levy as I mentioned and then add an additional 225,000 to the Surplus Revenue item
that's on this page eight along with an increase in the revenue item receives from delinquent taxes from 500 to 600,000 this would then be an additional 325,000 in revenues and that would bring the increase in the tax levy down from
5.5 C increase on the average assessed home to a 3C increase so where this budget currently stands it is a approximately a $90 annual tax increase for the average assessed home valued at 162,000 whereas a 3C increase would be
approximately a $50 annual increase I understand this is a lot of information all at once and we can go through the um the large sheets the 11 by 17 those are uh the detailed uh budget or
departments and then um we can go over any questions ideally I would like to review the spending side of the budget but then I ask you to keep the idea of increasing the revenues in mind as that is a more palatable solution and allows for all of our current services to the
public to remain intact we do not also we do not want to cut a budget too lean it should have some cushion in it to allow for emergency situations and for transfers at the end of the year when legally allowed also unspent budgets help to replenish Surplus one year after
a budget year ends all unspent monies are put back into Surplus so that's the current fund budget and then this little one sheet uh legal this is the utility operating budget uh it is up
$86,000 over the 20124 adopted budget which is a 1% increase so I know it's a lot of information I was waiting to say when I can ask a question now now okay back to page eight
um you have fees and permits they were 175 back in 18 then they went down and then they're back up what is that anticipating there oh back in 18 it was so it's um we're only allowed to realize Revenue
to the extent that we received it in the prior year so I I don't know exactly what the actual was but these are the revenues that we used in the budget and I don't normally Max them out but this may be
that we had Revenue of 175 180,000 those years and for whatever reason they would have dipped well 2020 was uh because it looked went went from 175 160 150 then 145 for three years and now you have prelim at
175 yeah so I got uh a little desperate and I was goosing up the the revenues the the only bad the only bad side to goosing up your anticipated revenues is if these revenues come in in at
175 uh or 180 then that excess goes into Surplus and that helps replenish Surplus so you you don't necessarily want to anticipate them to the max but uh sometimes yeah I think this this year I started anticipating a bunch of them to
the max but I I would have to double check myself is that will will that be the same for the hotel occupancies fees which were 75 for a while and then now they're 100 yeah okay that's fine I'm new so I'm just trying to understand it I'm please don't
be defensive about anything me I just can't remember I did the did the revenues a while ago okay but yeah that's I know I was getting um yeah a little desperate okay I told you it was 10 cents I was like oh my God I can't give him that and then the
construction um code fees you had said that it's the part of we share that with the Board of Ed is did we start that in 22 is that why it's higher than it was what was 150 in 21 uh construction code fees are separate that's um I that's the
the permits construction permits that one has the state does not want you to make money off of that so the revenue that we anticipate is supposed to roughly cover the cost of that department so if you look then at um you
know way towards the beginning of the spending side of it the Construction office plus we have a shared service with um haddenfield for uh construction I can't see it right now so we're anticipating 250 that's on
the high side too I guess that should it should cover the expenses like I can't anticipate a lot extra because the state makes me file a report annually okay to make sure that revenues and expenditures are close okay otherwise they make you reduce your uh construction fees okay
and then the million dollar question 410,000 for Grants did we get a big Grant last year that we're losing had a $375,000 cops Grant okay that we don't have and this one right now is only uh one of the cops grants I'm waiting clean
communities usually comes in 50 right around now but I sometimes it misses the budget so I have to do it as a chapter 159 or an addition to the budget um is that cops Grant was that only available to certain townships certain times a year which one that you said it was a
cops Grant oh that was a federal yeah that that was AAL we won't be eligible anymore for it for so many years is that how they work they have to they have to apply and I'm not sure of the criteria I know they did a lot of work applying for it um yeah I don't know because it looks
like CU Co 2020 I'm assuming that was part of Co that 386 because then it went down it went then it went to 4455 and then it went back up to 450 is 447 that one might have been um a couple of Road
Grants too recreation grants too we had a $250,000 Recreation Grant That'll fall under Burlington County gr no that a different no Burlington County Park Grant I think was in that year yeah too because you only anticipate us
getting 3,000 in Grants that's I I was just trying to it's a specific Grant and then on the spending side is the exact same amount so this is the um I think this is the New Jersey barf uh body armor replacement fund Grant and then there's an offset uh expend
expenditure in the grant so they always except for municipal Alles which we haven't participated in a little bit they always offset each other so the revenue has a an offsetting expenditure so they zero out okay so I mean we could technically get 500,000 in Grants we
could if you get yeah if you get them do chapter 159 then yeah it's called a chapter 159 and that's uh you just do it by resolution then it goes up to the state and it's just adding the revenue and the spending appropriation once you get them that's when you have to because
you have to show proof that you've gotten it okay like an award letter all right and then I guess the I'm sorry Municipal relief Aid yeah that's uh I think that was Federal covid money that the state then funneled down to the
towns and I have not heard anything from the state that we are getting anything additional so I can't I can't anticipate AR money too the AR stuff that was left I was our money yeah cuz I mean we didn't have it we never had it and then we got it in 23 and then like doubled in
24 and then now zero okay yeah and I was kind of hoping maybe they had something left but I think that's all I have thank you anybody else else anything on that one
okay we want to go to the big sheep so I'm sorry one more question did the the Ferell when you were you when you talked about that did we so you confused me there oh it's confusing you said originally that that you know Todd had suggested that we defer to school taxes did we stop at one
point doing that because later on you said we deferred a portion of it 15 instead of 17 we can um we can defer up to the 15 but did we stop for a certain amount of years toer we I think we we're doing it every year um and I think the
year that the school got um Federal money or or state money okay their Levy went down so we couldn't then fur the ma defer anything because that their their Levy actually dropped um which then affects your
Surplus um so then uh Sue and I we don't love to do it anyway like where he had been previously they did not do that on a uh on a recurring basis so we we were and we you know were afraid that what if their Levy goes down again you know we don't know exactly what they're doing so
we hadn't done it for a couple of years and now um yeah now it's like well once he said oh they've always done it here and and he's like now you're at you could defer 15.6 million and you're at 13.8 and it was like well if I did if we
defer a little bit not all of it we were thinking like 5 to 800,000 maybe that still leaves you a lot of money left over even if their Levy did go down which it very rarely ever occurs but but but if you do it all that's where we come up with the 30 cents which is the
$50 annually right if we do all um that's only actually we would defer you could defer 500 800 even if the one 1.7 million that would put it into Surplus but I don't want to use all of that I was just saying you could use an
additional 225,000 so where that final column has 4.5 million it would be 4725 million and then I was going to say um I we can use a little more you know taking almost to the max the receipts
for delinquent taxes bringing that to up to 600,000 then that gets it to the three cents okay thank you I thought it was a little more palatable not that anyone wants any increases
but it then keeps uh Services where they are what is what do the cost of living increase right now cost of living increase last I heard it was like 7.6% okay there we are inflation rate all right so we're going through
the detail now we can if you want do you have any questions about I I have questions okay um so under Finance salary and wages is that the big one page one one
it's on page one so it goes from 188 17 180 that's but I believe is that just one is that three employees so no it wasn't so there weren't the three employees in um 17 so it went to three
employees in 22 three in 17 not under the finance budget no no not that I recall but yes so that is for three employees now which is which started in 22 21 20 when did we
22 is when we hired Jess so but yeah but I don't I'd have to let me double check on the number of employees but it did it is for it was down to two for a while no it's been three maybe off on but it's been three yeah cuz I had we had to go to three my first stin here okay there
were two when I got here what year did you come back uh 20 yeah the very beginning of 2020 okay so before you we had a part it looks like we had a part time so when I got here there were two in that office there were two in the finance office for fulltime full yeah 100% yeah there was two full-time one
part-time then before you right yeah cuz she went over to tax she went over to tax yeah but we yeah before that we' had three fulltime I mean you know right before I left um second page am I the only one
with questions you're doing good I'm sorry I'm just going to keep going and nice job nice job um the audit service the the contractual Services what is that exactly because it's going from 35 to 44 but it's always
been is that just that's uh just in of uh Bowman that's the audit um some of it's charged to the finance office some of it the audit is charged here um but they provide like other they provide
budgetary assistance he follows the annual financial statement which is due Friday um that is charged under Finance OA uh whatever I call it operating other expenditures so under the finance detail under contractual Services some of his
um some of Bowman's fees are there also okay all right um computer maintenance wow is that is that a new is that a new contract we do every year or yeah there's um you know the cyber attacks are getting a lot worse and this company
is um a lot more proactive the company that we had previously was more reactive and uh this covers all of our cyber security it covers um all of our they do all of our emails they do our they manage our server it's 247 provided
service for that so I mean it almost double right yes in two years I mean I didn't know if there was something we could yeah and we um what was the the GIF cyber security whatever that rating was right so yeah there's three tiers that we have to that you fall under in
order for your jef for your insurance rates okay so Maple Shade we are in the third tier which is the top tier of what it is so we get the discount on then our jef insurance as well so they help to get us to that level too and just so just so you know there was in those
previous years we didn't have the the security the 247 we didn't have that constant monitoring that we have now we didn't have much I just didn't know if that was something we look at to renew with a different company is that so we go out I do ask for quotes and do get something
they have not like they've been pretty this also that number also will include sometimes um like if we have to get them to do something extra that sort of thing but um yeah they monitor our website they do our website so does that include the training or is that through the state training is through the GIF it's
through the GIF okay all right um under assess other expenses we have special services appraisals which started only last year what is I guess what is that where did that come
from I don't know where I used to have that before maybe uh contractual Services probably where it would it was she needs that when uh they have tax appeals she has to get appraisals to help
uh okay bolster her defense I guess and um negotiating so that's separate than the tax appeal line yes okay yeah you'll see some things we we've gotten we they're newer
because I wanted to see things broken out so you can actually have a better idea of where they're spending things instead of it being lumped and that's what we've done over the last several years we' we've started to break lines out it's just easier to budget when you can kind of see what are they actually
spending it on instead of it all going used to all be in like contractual Serv contractual Services right is where we would put everything then you had to analyze contractual services like well why don't I just create a couple of lines and throw the cost in there then it's easier
okay all right and then legal solicitor that just is that just recent events um yeah we just estimate that okay um engineering is that infrastructure from 22 to 23 from 13,000
to 40,000 to 75,000 is that what that is I assume it's infrastructure but I'm ask actual uh it's expenditures so um this is usually it says general a lot of I mean I can't speak for years that I wasn't
here but a lot of the contractual Services lines it's more of of um special projects for the engineer and meeting attendance if there are uh construction type projects road projects those are normally charged to the
capital ordinance so that we can keep it out of the operating budget just look like a big jump to me I know our roads are falling apart and I mean and it's we budgeted 75 in
2024 because it was a new engineer so each time there was a different engineer I don't know what they're going to be like so we would you know change we we would increase the budget but we they didn't spend that so they spent in 2024
uh 48,000 almost so then now we have a new engineer so I put 55 in because I don't know what they're going to do also but it should just be meeting attendance uh special type of projects that I can't charge to a capital ordinance that's what goes there we ask them do research for us those sorts of things that we
wanted them to find on when we did like the High Street I reached out to them and said okay I need you to can you just look tell me what it would be for the traffic calming devices those sorts of things okay where we need an engineer's opinion right all right um page three so under
the business and economics expenses there's one that was formerly the ABC that 125 is that what is that that that's money that um the township gives to the it was the ABC that was given to
them just to be able to do things within the township and do different programs and whatnot okay because it went from 12 and 22 to 5 and 23 then back up to 12 is that that's stay in that way yeah we're just yeah we're just about 12 is where it is
that's offsetting some of the programs that the ABC had done now the business and economic development commission see the one year it was 30,000 um again depends on what uh they do but 125 I think at one point it was almost 15 as well it went 10 12 um that is a line
item that you could we could take them moment all right and then the Planning and Zoning is that the attorney fees yeah yes and engineer an engine right have miscellaneous things that the engine doesn't fall under under escrow right
okay because that jumped I was just curious yeah it has from 21 to 22 triple um okay under housing and Rental inspections
work that's still imped very under code enforcement so that's our for our part-time uh inspector that does or not right because uh what were we doing the rental assistance programs and things so I didn't know how much so that's pretty
brand new I had no idea how much to um budget and how how many inspections they were going to do so that's why you see uh so you estimated 20 last year but we only did three so now you're doing 10 I'm just trying to get in your head and the uh no don't get there um and
there's a a line above it temporary part-time like we originally didn't know if we were going to need two different uh inspectors and how much work they were going to be doing but um yeah I cut the one entirely so I just have one inspector for 10,000 and I think that's
uh we're not going to exceed that okay and then the um the GIF increase what is that related to it's been about three so in page four at the top so that
increase was due um it's every what five years I think is what it is they go on a 5-year cycle and when you have too many assessments under when you have too many claims there's a portion that we then have to pay back so the one year that it jumped up um where you saw it go to
375,000 that was one of the years we got assessed like another like $50,000 is what it was um and that goes on so that that was from 20 that was from 20 22 it was from like 2017 is where it was um yeah they do because they give us that in the
beginning of the year so we do have the assessment this year that's going to be pretty darn close to to another 50 mhm okay yeah that's when you have large claims so we had a large claim um you'll have one in another couple years as well we had a large claim over at the
apartments over at Stony Run um where it was a very large uh sewage break that the line broke went into like six different apartments there insurance covered it for us um so you'll see that in the next couple years but yes that is what that's
for okay all right moving on to page five the fire department um maintenance of equipment is that because we got we just recently ordered new uniforms for everybody or and I
could be totally off I'm just throwing that we went from where is it page five in the middle in the middle under Fire Department other expenses there's like a maintenance of equ other Material supplies so it starts off 10,00 then it goes up to 50 then it goes down to five
and then it goes up to 25 so just is that just anticipating more people coming in hiring yeah it's not a physical it's maintenance of equipment things that we do uh either sometimes to trucks that aren't actual vehicle maintenance um also if there's anything
for instance um if they need a new tool something needs to be serviced those sorts of things okay all right moving on to six and often too just so you know the way that with the department heads they will
say where they want the line items to be charged so it's not always Finance determining where so like the department has an idea that okay this is where I think it falls under it goes to finance finance will charge it there sometimes finance will say no it doesn't belong there we charge it to another line item
so all right thank you um demolition of I'm sorry not de sanitation um is our contract up yeah so yeah we're yeah we're out to bid so and that's we have to put the the new increase of what we anticipated to be
which when was our last because I know we switched a couple years ago was that in 21 or do we do that 2020 was in 2020 you do um you do a three-year contract with the option to extend for a year you can do two one-year extensions or you
can do one fiveyear and that's when the bid goes out typically it gets bid that okay here's the threeyear what are you going to charge me for the threee and then if you do the one the two one-year extensions and then what would you charge for a 5year because if they can guarantee that they're going to do it for 5 Years it'll be you hope that it's cheaper okay but then that increase that
you'll see too over those years um we had the one year I guess that was two years ago that started uh that we had an 8% increase in that first so even though they bid but it was over during Co after the co issues and you know they couldn't get staff they couldn't get anybody to
do anything the state allowed um the the sanitation companies to increase you were allowed to go back into negotiations for that one year even though so they might have bid that one year was going to be 400,000 but because of covid and all the issues that they were having with trash collection they
allowed everybody to go in and bid or like reive a new quote so that year our it went up 8% so okay I to jump now I mean pretty sufficient I mean you're going to you're going to see a good you're going to see some estimating too
and I know you estimate higher for reasons I know I just I know why that's easy that's easy I think I used it 11% 11% is about yeah and that's only October through December so like I'm using actual for the months of January to September right because our contract
ends in September with the caller but weren't they going up some ridiculous amount like 28% well yeah it was it was like 55% is what it was and then so now they're starting to even out towns are seeing any anywhere between a 15 and like a 22% increase as Mar better than
it was because this it's been murder you know trying to get through that okay and right under that under public properties um Postage and reproduction costs 880,000 post and reproduction cost she doesn't
miss a trick yeah so reproduction that is all oh that's before us that was a big scanning project the 102,000 and then you're looking on page six under public property public property reproduction cost right around
the bottom just about I don't know what the 82 is I'm assuming that's part of that project that was the scanning project do we do some of it records management yeah records management so are you anticipating that
again are you anticipating that again to put 80 in there for no that's my budget transfer cushion that's hence the 10,000 knocked off yeah 10 was nothing for 80 I was curious okay what percentage that
was okay that was acus scan was a company that came in and started u mostly the yo I should switch careers really a scan paper the building permits well they the entire permits get scanned okay um because they're permanent
records and they got twoin the whole back room was filled with boxes we got so I'll look at that next year that was before even before 2017 before this is the public property is
like a catch all to so like you can see there's a lot of expenses and the next line down maintenance of property I mean a lot of stuff goes in there so that's why I leave a cushion because I don't know what's going to break and the building or some of the our other
buildings that you know we own or like maintenance of uh public property maintenance property a lot of that is our HVAC system here like we joke I joke that we sent everybody there like we paid their weddings and college degree like college well because I saw I saw
Postage and then I saw $40,000 and I saw 80 of them yeah it cost a lot of money to run a municipality okay all right page seven um Community Service app that is the municipal Services act we are required
by law to reimburse our condos and um for services that are given to our single family homes that aren't given to that like we don't we don't uh plow their snow plow snow thank you I couldn't think I say cut snow we don't plow snow so they plow snow they then
submit to us an invoice of what their contractor had to do and it's only on the prop it's only on the portions of the property that would be Municipal mun ably owned or taken care of so we go in and each one has a certain amount of roadway that you know it might be0 2
miles but then we pay the rate that the municipality would pay for our guys to go in and do that so they're not getting extra they're just getting reimbursed for that service but you know it's going to be Valley Glenn um your uh Terrace Apartments Watergate
uh have it before 21 so yeah it wasn't getting and it is by law um and when I got here I was like oh look at that line item and found out that we hadn't done it okay so and it is and and before that
it was um a previous manager may have taken it as credit oh they were doing credit on sewer as well which is not and you can't do that either so what there was what he was doing is saying okay well you know X complex you paid $5,000 in sewer fees and we'll pay we'll credit
that to your sewer you can't do that you have to reimburse them the cost that seems pretty high in your prelim too now sorry my phone because it's only been a couple years so and they trickle in and they throw everything at Sue and then sue has to go through all their
receipts and argue with them um but also remember we haven't had a lot of snow Yeah so like for two years I had I paid out no snow we also paid their electric for anything that's a public um public Li Li Street lighting and Street lighting and leaf removal
provide those services to them in the last couple years I've changed leaf removal to where our guys will go and pick up the leaf removal so they the complexes have the option either we'll come in and we'll pick it up or we're going to tell you how much it would cost us and that's all you're getting for
that reimbursement so and most now have said that we will that they allow us to come and pick it up okay yeah because there's and then there's and then it's there for 21 and 22 and it's gone for 23 because everything was given as a credit got it on sewer which you cannot do okay all
righty um that one irks me I'll tell that one does and you know I live in a condominium complex and we pay an HOA for certain reason you know we do things and but it's by law it's required and okay and then quick Recreation the Community Affairs is that the parades
that so we've come up with a the community events and the Community Affairs there's different she and some of it is also the oh this year we put fireworks in you'll see that that's because this your the first fireworks community so yeah Community Affairs will be anything that's additional additional
programs that you might do it might be um anything that we have to do with the uh concerts in the park and um it could be if she holds some sort like we did the uh Phillies um the Phillies uh watch
party up here those sorts of things oh right they love that yeah oh yeah so then we created a new line cuz because we in finance and I don't think you did it for us but we would always have the debate do we put the fireworks and contractual services or do they go
in Community Affairs so this year we have a line now correct for fireworks so that's what we did we broke out that line item right I I saw that and then I figured we would have to figure that out and then but I saw I didn't know the difference between I guess Community Affairs and then community events I didn't know one took into effect the
parades yes yes that's more of the community events the bottom one you fair to the programs um like it's uh spring break where Lauren holds the the events there where she doesn't charge anybody that Community Affairs goes into that and then like the New Year's Eve party
that falls under that New Year's Eve got split between Recreation yeah BC okay then the last question I think I have moment I probably have a couple more but Capital Improvements why did that go down so much P cuz we were trying to cut
cut so that is the money that's our um down payment money basically is what that is in there so um and we took that out because we were looking for other places to cut so when Andy and I were talking about it we had discussed that okay you know at this point all of our
departments have gotten they should have most of the tools and the resources that they've needed over the years whether it be Vehicles whether it be you know equipment that they've needed so it was the con the thought was okay let's concentrate on roads and things that maybe we haven't put so much
concentration in to in the last couple years where we've been trying to get the Departments up and and running yes so the 50,000 it's it's a 5% down payment we still have 37,000 in the general Capital fund for the capital Improvement fund so the
total the maximum allowable amount of capital projects for 2025 would be 1.8 million okay given this 50,000 in the budget and then what we have left over from previous years it's in a a different Fund in the general C
capital okay okay um and do we get do we get revenue for that de sign on 38 does that go into our Revenue do we get money nothing yes we get the I was trying to find Revenue yeah we get the revenue one
of the the big places of Revenue again is is going to be cannabis you get 2% off their off their sales um it's I did speak I know originally I think I mentioned to you all that the one uh the Sun Bank that I heard they weren't I did speak
with the attorney the other day and they are in like they are moving forward with it so okay you know you just don't know how quickly they're going to they're going to come in I told them to go fast but and you said that Revenue comes right away it will as soon as they start making and they start reporting to the
state that Revenue comes to us yep what is our expenses for contractual obligations to the police and D PW what what are the rates this year so uh the police is at 2.25% this year 2.25% was their
contractual increase and the DPW was at 2.25% next year DPW goes to two and the police was a scale down as well and they're all in contracts for how long uh DPW was three years and police were five
that's why we did the scaling down for the police so what do they do then police are doing 27 okay and DPW will be duck in 26 okay so we have to how does this work
now do we have to decide on whether we want to defer do we make that decision now is that something that so I I would like if you could to um decide whether or not you want to defer and if so how
much because um the annual financial statement is due on Friday to the state and and um if we defer I I need to ask Todd to change the um that amount and the that's reported in the annual
financial statement do you anticipate any other major uh changes in here that would lower the rate as opposed to justar we're going to get grants well but that that won't change
your your rate at all unfortunately um those are just so nothing significant that would make sus what what are the incomes on the the tower in the by the leaf yard minimal minimal what do we get on
the the tower I think the one is 880,000 if that yeah it's minimal a year a year M and you get ones for the one that's on the Water Tower yeah so yes we had and again that too is minimal those were done contractuals before they were done for
like 10e contracts before I got here so yeah so cuz aren't they adding to the new um I saw the surveyors out there for the one by the leaf site um are they adding to their footprint out there not
that I know of no I have not gotten anything that said that they were that's interesting why would they be out there surveying if they're not going to add to their footprint they could be surveying to want to add to their footprint but haven't said anything to the municipality yet yeah okay well that that would change yeah you
know those rents again aren't it depends on what the contract says you have contct we have to have to cont 75,000 uh in last year's 2023 but that's
just for the one right that's all cell tower R that's all of them so I said it's like 880,000 you need to renegotiate that stuff I'm just telling you that right now that needs to be renegotiated yeah so and and it also depends on who the carrier is so I mean if it's not a major car T-Mobile
Verizon it's who has the most and they come into into the areas of where they have the most car where they have the most provider where they're providing the most service so um yeah it's not weren't they protected they can't you
know I thought Verizon thought there was what do you mean protected that there're you know there's a not you can't kill them with it correct like I can't right that is correct there is a cap that we just can't go in and we can't say okay well we think that our Tower is worth you know 5,000 a month for Verizon and
you know we think T-Mobile is worth 2500 that's something that been fighting the BPU and the they're all the ones that all but they can be renegotiated we certainly renegotiate I know W about Tower renegotiations so yeah so you need to
renegotiate all right so I guess we have to decide 800 or a million or a million yeah the first thing is I would assume everybody wants to do the lesser of the increase not a 5cent increase you're more inclined to do the 3 Cent increase so if that's the case then yes then are
you want an agreement to do deferred deferring some more school tax and if you want to defer additional School tax then how much do we want to defer okay yeah we were we thinking we were thinking like between five and 800,000 Andy I think you originally were like
right around 550 came like 675 800 ,000 so so probably somewhere in there that just adds to then the the ending balance of surplus and then we would just use an additional
225,000 of that 800,000 so we're not using the entire amount you say 800's like half so right I'm okay with that yeah and then that leaves you a cushion that you could do half of that next year and the school's Levy most likely is going to go up anyway so you could
potentially do another e00 next year you guys that work I'm fine with that okay do we need a motion so you need a well we'll have to do a resol we'll do a resolution at the next meeting so y just an agreement that's what we're going to do so it's going to be for 8 you said 800,000 800,000 that'll be a resolution
everybody yes you're my B yes sorry okay sorry and then I would I will do uh I'll increase the receipts from delinquent taxes 100,000 and that'll bring it to about a 3C increase is that it's fair that work for everybody and that is um
about $50 on the average assess home which is assessed at 162 162,000 if you're at $200,000 it's about $60 uh $250,000 home be about
$75 total for the year I think that's fair yes okay any other questions comments so are we read Are you um so we have to do that resolution first obviously can we introduce then is that
can we do the resolution get a capital budget ready so uh what I was wanted to ask also is uh if you guys have a little time before or after next week's meeting I can have the capital information ready for you to
discuss um but I didn't uh I didn't have the opportunity to do that okay so um we'll have that discussion in the um I put that on for discuss before or after I don't know what you guys prefer before or after next week's meeting okay what
works better for you because before would be better but I I lost track of what time you guys start 630 we start 6:30 you could do six then I could do six we could do 5:30 how long do you think it's going to take I might question I think it won't it won't take long no okay okay that's fine six six
six yep okay so we'll we'll adjust we'll uh re advertise for six o'clock next Thursday okay um anybody else have anything before I open it up to the public okay at this time I'll open it up to the public for comments
anybody all right going seeing none we'll go to staff and professional comments shouldn't we close the public comments it doesn't say that but I guess I have to supposed to write that on there also forgot this Pledge of Allegiance but I hav said anything oh my goodness it's an annual we're going to
close the public comments right I ask a question sure how much would the expense have to go down not to raise the taxes for the people um let's see it 3 133 right
133,000 times 3 so 400,000 400,000 okay that's not something I heard Con well I had a 10-cent tax increase and I knew
that I could not bring that to them so I got it U and then I cut it a lot and then I gave it to sue so between the two of us we got it down to the 5.5 Cent um but we didn't like cut like jobs I didn't cut Services we didn't cut that you're
asking we didn't discuss I heard we talked a lot about the increases across the board but I didn't hear anything about where we challenged any of those increases we just accepted well we were up at 10 cents and
we got it down to 5.5 down to three well they and they also have um detail of the actual expenditures over the years from 17 to 24 and it's not like there's there's nothing uh exorbitant or extravagant in
here that there's not really much that you could cut without then cutting a service was there any tax increases last year or the year before last year I think there was last year was 1.3 and the
year 24 23 so 23 was uh yeah that was like a another no last year we were at 1.9 right 1.9 last year 1.3 the year before I believe so to keep those overall numbers
down I would think if yeah right one we on a yearly the cost of doing business is never going to go down it's always going to increase right so the sheer thought the taxes or anyone says the taxes are going to get down that's crazy physically
impossible so I I don't know what was done in the past but I would propose that we have a slight increase every year to keep Pace with the cost of doing business which
will I think help offset I I've been looking at the numbers but if we're charging $30 a year constant that and I mean we're going to take hits I mean we can't figure out what the the state of the world's going
to be from one year to the next but that might be better more palatable to the people I think if we do small increases every year where we don't have to do large ones and and monitor in that way I
I don't know if that's something that's feasible or something we could do but yeah I know people are not going to want to have a $100 or $200 increase but if we're increasing at 30 bucks for the year every year and it's you know you're talking
what five six or whatever 10 bucks a month I don't think people have a problem with that instead of waiting waiting waiting I know that's a philosophy that that Andy and I had come from you know that you don't do zeros zeros are not good and you look at some of these towns around us you know I hate
to call them out with penceal and did zeros for year for years they did zeros did here for like 10 years yeah and it just you can't you're right you just can't business is just insurance goes up everything goes up the cost of buying paper for the printers goes up it's just
right it's physically impossible not to have and that's not us that's just the world that's business that's companies running their business right but I don't know if there's a comfortable number that could be assessed through looking at all of it I I don't know but but
that's a good guide like if you're saying $30 is around where you want to be I'm just picking a number that's feasible to it's pable right I mean right and what was it last year per what did we said was it like 20 cents I thought it was was 1.9 yeah well that's
was 1.3 and 23 was 1.9 21 and 22 were zero because we were in Co coming out of Co 2020 was a half a penny and 2019 was two cents yeah I'm just trying to offer
your perspective coming from the corporate the corporate world the the expectation was you do more for Less you work in electronics TVs don't go up in price every year they go
down so the the acceptance of taxes going up every year should be an acceptable practice that's all I'll say thank you thank you yeah I I you know and just you
know to we had back in I'm sorry if the gentleman made a comment aren't we supposed to have name and address have name and address itex thank you Michael Michael Newman Alexander thank you in 2023
we went in we had made a cut to we had changed our health insurance provider so we wind up going to the State Health Benefit that is something right now that I am looking at and asking to look at because the State Health Benefit has increased So High um we knew back in 2023 that we were
getting this reduction I think it was like 375,000 or something across the board that we were able to save but we would have been that higher had we stayed in the old one now we're in another position where okay it's time to look again so those conversations have started to say Hey you know can we look
maybe going back to the hiff and finding that savings because the State Health Benefit system is you know not doing so well um so those things are be going to be looked at this year again well they are being looked at already um so we'll find Cuts as we go through the year department heads they know you know you
don't they don't spend to the very end I put a spending freeze normally in October um you know where they yeah she does but you know it helps I mean it's you know if you're saving another 10,000 you know $15,000 it's better than having to add to your budget or have to do that
transfer so okay well I forgot to mention that um like of the 5.5 Cent increase that we were looking at here um a penny of it is due to the fact that the town's value has decreased due to tax appeals another penny is the
increase in health the cost of health insurance 2 and a half cents is the increase in police salaries and wages half a cent is trash uh collection cost and half a cent is solid waste disposal
and approximately half a cent is pension costs so those are larger items that we really don't have a whole lot of control over I mean the police is contractual the health insurance that's just outrageous every year but like she said
we she does keep trying to bounce us around if if someone will have us and uh can give us a lower rate okay did you have another question no I was just going to offer a comment to Susan brings up very valid points you know with the trash collection you know
we probably have a Cadillac trash collection service maybe we're not able to offer a Cadillac TR collection let me tell you about the the company that we had before that we have now they would dump trash all
over they they actually went out of business because they couldn't run their business so and and Chuck when I lived in Pennsylvania for a year I paid for my own trash right because you didn't have it right I I got two trash cans every two weeks and it was 18 bucks a month so
it's what are the people willing to pay for right that that's that's where it's up to the people determine what are they willing to have and Susan and I have had this conversation and those are conversations that the council has already started to have two I mean so you know health benefits you know for
when I was a Martin which is where I just retired from it's we had to look hard at the benefits that we were offering employees to stay competitive with what other our competitors were doing we had
AAC Health Plan and then we had to go to a Chevrolet health plan to be competitive with what the market was mared I got dollar to Donuts that the township probably still has a cill he so and you correct and that is where it is but we've made the we've started to make
those changes to where your new employees come in that they're only permitted to get certain so you know as opposed to a $10 again $10 co-pay plan newer employees aren't permitted to go into a $10 co-pay plan they have to go into a $15 so we've started to scale those things back as well but then you
still have contractual agreements and obligations where you have members that have been here that you can't read you try that's that's listen it's it's health insurance salaries and I guess probably your your um uh clothing allowances and whatnot like the extras
that you get colletive bargaining agreements aren in play these are things that we probably have to look at to right provide relief to the taxpayers of the right but you know there you're talking you're you're talking 12 employees that aren't covered by a um everybody else's c yeah that AR that are
not covered by a collective bargaining agreement so you know okay anybody anybody else from the public all right we're going to close the public portion move second all in favor I go over to staff and
professional comments who wants to start Mr zik nothing nothing at this time no I don't thank you no thank you for all the work you do because it is it's very mindboggling and thank you appreciate it I will get the uh information on all
the leases okay for John sry did you have anything no thank you thank you Andy yes thank you Andy all right we're not going into close so to do the AUD all right so
motion to adjourn motion to adjourn have a second Andrew second okay comments all in favor yay