[Music] Welcome to another episode of Thinkbridge. Today we'll be discussing a topic that's very important to everyone here in Oldbridge. It is our tax rate. I will be talking to Mayor Debbie Walker.
I will be talking to CFO Dawn Tobot who is also our tax collector and I have our business administrator here Anna Felts. So we would like to discuss with you what has been going on recently in our last tax bills. So first question for you ladies, what government entity does
the township bill taxes for? So the entities that the township uh bills taxes for are the old board of education, the Middle Sex County, Middle Sex County Open Space, the library, and our four fire districts. As you all know, we are the collector of the taxes
and then we have to distribute the portions out to each of those entities. Okay. You're the main body and through you goes all the taxes are distributed out by state law we have to collect all the taxes. Okay. What is the breakdown of where the
taxes go? So each entity sets the budget and the tax dollar amount. Once that is done, they send their budget to the state for certification. At that time, the state will then certify these tax levies to the Middle Sex County Board of Taxation who finalizes the tax rate to
be built to all property owners here in Oldbridge. Um so again, we don't determine each of those tax. It's based on the budget for each of those entities. The board of education controls the school budget. Um the library is is set by state statute I
believe. Um and then etc. So the only portion that we can control is the municipal portion. The local what goes on here locally. Correct. Only the municipal tax. Right. And the library tax goes up by state statue every year. We have absolutely no control over the library. The minimum amount we have to pay to them.
Even if people think if the library is associated with the township, they would. We have no control over it. Correct. Well, that makes sense. if it's a separate entity, but people see it as something here in town, so they feel that it's part of us. And the same thing with open space. Correct. Correct. That's set by Middle Sex County
as well. Okay. And I think it's important to note too that until the state passes their budget, we cannot send out tax bills because the state will not certify any of the tax levies, whether it be the
municipal, the school, the county, any budget that relies on state aid. You have to wait until the state adopts their budget, which is usually not until or about June 30th. They usually go up right up to the end last minute which does cause a problem for tax
billing and that's one of the reasons why we decided to go with estimated tax bills this year which we'll go into a little further right and that was known I mean you presented well at the council meeting explaining you know why this was necessary and I believe all the council
people agreed and you know voted for you to do that because it it was something that needed to be done. Yeah, there's there's many um many municipalities that do do estimated bills every year just for cash flow purposes because stable keep it
Yeah, because even by statute, we're supposed to mail the tax bill by June 14th. We can't do that if the state doesn't pass their budget till June 30th. And even at that point, in order to get it the bills out on time for August tax quarter, they have to be in the mail by
July 15th. Mhm. So you have between that July 1st, July 15th, that two week period, you have Fourth of July holiday in there. It's it's very hard to get the rates mail out over 20,000. It's difficult. We're a big town, too.
So, I mean, not that it's I'm sure small town, big town, but at the end of the day, when you are as big as we are and you have as many to do, it's it's a lot. It really is. And you have to follow the law. But I do think the council appreciated your, you know, being given
us the whole presentation and I believe every single one of us understood it and voted for it. So that was, well, we knew we were going to be looking at a large, we were hearing a large increase from the school board. So by state law, we were only allowed to do 5% at the first ones, but we knew we
were trying to be prepared. Yeah, you have to be you got to be ahead of the curve when it's your responsibility and you take it seriously. It's a big undertaking. I know for me, one of the things that factored into doing the estimated bills this year was just not so much the amount of the increase of the school,
but the uncertainty that seemed to be around their budget. Um, in talking with the BA over at the school, right, they were unsure. They weren't hearing back from the state whether their budget that they adopted was going to be approved, they were going to change it. And if they do a change like that last
minute and we can't send the tax bills out, that would it would be detrimental. Yeah. Yeah. And you do you have to think about Yeah. And you have to think about what's right for the whole right for the town. You can't, you know, you can't wait until things happen sometimes. Sometimes you got to preempt it and be ready.
We have to be proactive in situations like that. Absolutely. If you're not Yeah. We can't stop the cash flow. No. No. Okay. And another question that people were asking too, the municipal portion counts for only 16% of the total budget. What does this cover for the
town? Uh well so the 16% the municipal levy was only 16%. Um I think we've touched upon in several of our presentations at council meeting that the school percentage is 60% the middle six county percentage that they receive is 17% um county open space is 1% fire
district is 4% library is 2%. So out of all of that um the township only makes up 16% of the total tax rate. Um that includes for us public safety. So that's your police department OEM. Um it actually also does include and I think
people don't realize the contribution that we make towards uh OBMS our EMS service here in town. I think it's important to note that um public works so roads, recycling, snow removal, uh vehicle maintenance and building maintenance for the operations of the
township. Um health and senior services, parks and facilities as well as recreation. As you've seen, we've been developing all of our parks. Um so that goes towards that as well. uh the building department, you know, you need your permits, code enforcement, enforcing those permits, um community
development, which is engineering, planning, and zoning. So, that 16% goes to the salaries and wages of all of those employees in those different departments, but also to the operational budget of those departments, the equipment that's needed, the supplies that are needed, everything that goes towards uh those things
and paving and drainage. Yeah, there's a lot there's a lot of expenses to run a town. How does this work? Does Oldbridge distribute revenue to all the entities? Yes. Uh so the township is required to collect for all the taxing districts. So
you get usually the one bill a year unless we do estimated bills like this year. Yeah. Um but then the township distributes out to all those entities that we just listed. So the money is distributed quarterly on the 15th right after the
collection period to the county and the four fire districts and we distribute monthly to the school and the library. Now if there's any shortfalls anywhere, what is how does that work? The municipality takes the hit for that. Correct. So here
because obviously we we never have 100%. Well, I was going to say I would doubt that's possible. I mean just being realistic. Okay. It's usually in the 99% range, which is excellent. Yeah. Thank God. Yes. But it's still a lot of money. There's still some tax delinquencies
that the township has to make up because those other entities still has to get their full amount. We might not receive our full amount because now we need to make up the difference. Right. So, that 16% even reduced further, right? Think about it. That's what I'm Yeah. You know, when you think about it is right, it's very
difficult because anything that is missing or short Yeah. has to be made up. So even it like she said 1% lot it's it's a very expensive proposition well over $2 million. Which entity saw the largest increases
in 2025 in the budget? Well for 2025 the largest increase came from the school um at 13.87%. Being that the school makes up 60% of the levy it's a huge increase. Middle
Sex County Open Space increased 11.11%. The library 10.2%. But both of those entities are smaller. They're only about 12% of the total tax levy. So even though it's a high increase, it's not as much of a dollar
impact as the school. And we can't control the library portion. Yeah. Um Middle Sex County was 6.56 and the municipal rate was only 1.58%. So, when residents get their final tax bill, which should be mailed out in the
beginning of September, um they're going to see a total tax increase for the year of around 10%. Uh varying slightly by fire district. It's high, you know, 9% low 10% range, right? But now the year, our year, our
fiscal year is a little different than the states fiscal. So, and the schools schools, right? So how how do you see this unfolding throughout 25 into 2026? So the municipality is on a calendar
year from January to December and that's the way we bill our taxes. The school is on a fiscal year from July to June. So some of this increase is going to spill over into the 2026 and then
obviously it's unknown what next year's Yeah, that of course. But there will still be repercussions. Correct. From this increase into the 2026 calendar year, correct? I just, you know, so that people are aware that there is more.
You want the residents to be aware of that next year they might even get a a bigger increase and that this is unfortunately this is out of our control. Correct. and the way we bill our year versus the um school year. This can happen and this is what
will happen this year. Correct? As you can see by the 1.58% we are just good source of our money. We work very hard to keep the tax rate as low as possible for all the services we and and the you know I would say a good amount of our increases are due to
variables out of our control. So benefits, pension and those types of things has gone you know so recycling. So those were probably the three biggest factors that I would say the big cost drivers increase. Exactly. And you know looking ahead to 26 you
know we've already started working on our budget for 26 just kind of looking at where our departments are but also forecasting a little bit of what's going to happen with the benefits and things like that. And you know we have to keep that in mind. um those those variables you can't control and that has that's
going to impact our departments on how we budget for them as well so that we can keep our tax increase as low as we can for our residents. Yeah, we try to make the best and get the much as much resources as far as grants and you know all kinds of things to make it as reasonable as possible.
But unfortunately there has been a lot and we've faced a lot as a town. I mean, we had the whole cleanup down at the at, you know, Lawrence Harbor, and that in itself, too, was a a massive undertaking. You know, we really had a budget for that as well, and that was a
lot of money. Okay. This year, why does the fourth quarter show such a large increase and it got a lot of calls on that? I did. Yes. So, this year, as I stated, the township sent out estimated third quarter bills. Um, with the estimated
bills, the state allows a range of within 5% either lower or higher than last year's. They set a limit as to what you can of last year's bill. So, we had settled on 4.79%. So, that's what you see in in the third
quarter estimate about a roughly a 5% let's say increase. The actual increase will be more will be around 10%. you know, a plus or minus, you know, couple hundreds there. One thing I did want to go over that I went over last week at
the council meeting is how taxes are build because one of the big questions we get is always just in a normal billing cycle, why are third and fourth quarter higher than first and second? And then this year obviously estimated came out a little differently. So, just
in a simple example, if your 2024 taxes were $10,000 and you had a 10% increase for 2025, your total taxes for 25 would be 11,000. Now, first and second quarter are always
a preliminary bill based on the previous year's taxes. So, if you take the $10,000, divide it by four, you bill 2500 for first quarter, 2500 for second quarter of 2025. Then, when we get the final billing, now
your total taxes for 2025 are $11,000. So, you take the 11,000, you subtract out 2500, 2500, you're left with 6,000. That 6,000 gets divided over third and fourth quarter evenly. So, it's 3,000 a quarter.
So 11,000 total for the year. 2026 first and second quarter is going to be preliminary. The 11,000 divided by 4. So it's 2750 first quarter 2750 second quarter.
This year with the estimated billing I said let's just round that 4.79% up to 5%. So first and second quarter still that 2500. Third quarter is going to be 5% of last
year's taxes, which would be 10,500. Divide that by four. $2,625 for third quarter. Now, when it comes time to do final billing, you take that 11,000, subtract out 2500 first quarter, 2500
second quarter, and the 2625 third quarter, and you're left with $3,375. So, this is why people are seeing the fourth quarter is already posted online. So, people are seeing, we're getting a lot of calls, why did my taxes go up 25,
30%. They didn't. You're still being build the same amount as if you know we were in a normal billing cycle. You're still getting build essentially that 11,000 number. It's just the breakout is different.
Yeah. And it's difficult when people see that their first initial reaction Yeah. is, oh my god. I I I mean, you can understand it when you're just looking at the numbers. I mean, when you break it down, you understand it, but it's very difficult.
There was a drastic increase with the school board, though. Yeah. Very large amount this year. Yeah. And it really hit home for senior citizens, young families. It It's difficult. It really, really is. You just, you know, you have to take a
little time to absorb all this and people do have questions. That's why I think we needed this program. and we needed you to come to the council meeting just trying to make them understand. Unfortunately, it is what it is, but we
would like to try to at least explain what happened because we don't want people, you know, to think that we're just not listening to them. Correct. I would really encourage people to go to the board of education meetings and have that too. Sure. And what go and the because since 60% of your taxes come
from there I think people focus on the municipality because we collect the taxes but most of your taxes are coming from the school board. So I think it's very important to people to to attend meetings. Yeah. And we we do have all the slides um from the presentation that was done at the
August 12th council meeting. They're up on the website. I do have here um the increase for the average home in Oldbridge for 2025. So when we do our budget presentation in the spring, we always in the slides say for the average
home in Oldbridge assessed at right $157,373. We in Oldbridge we are assessed at around 30% of market value. So that's why your assessment is always going to show lower than what the market value of your house is. Yeah.
So, for the average residential home in Oldbridge assessed at $157,373, uh the tax increase is about $89821. That's that's quite a a big Yes. of that the school accounts for
$72864 and the municipality portion is only an increase of $25.18. Yeah, it's very important to note that. Yes, it is. And even as far as assessment and the talk of the reassessment, you know, you've said it several times,
it really is just a re positioning. It's not Exactly. It's very important to note that if we were to do a re-evaluation that we could still only collect the same amount by taxation. We're not allowed to change how much we're getting. So it's it wouldn't help the budget. It's not going to be an out of money,
right? I mean, it would change who's paying what, but the bottom line is the same amount of money. So it's not going to change this bottom line at all. I know rumors were going around. Yeah, that was another thing. And also
when the town is eventually reval and those are brought up to market value the actual rate itself is going to go down. So it's not bill$6 on your assessment it would be probably more around two.
Yeah. with the social media has put that out there as well. Yes. Because people have asked me about that, you know, also as that being a reason for uh you know, having all this necessity to raise taxes
and like the mayor said, no, because it really is not that's not doesn't change the bottom line. As the one said, I think the township was a $25. You could see the large portion 700 and something was the school board. So, yeah, we're going to take a short commercial
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Welcome back to Think Oldbridge. Today my guests are Mayor Debbie Walker, our CFO and tax collector Dorne Fabotaa, our business administrator Anna Felts, and today we're talking about our favorite topic, taxes. How can residents pay
their taxes? What are their options? Well, there's several options. Um, you could pay online at oldbridge.com either with a a debit using your um bank account number or routing number. There's no fee for that. Or by credit card. Uh there is a 2% fee.
That is what the bank charges us. Um most places now, you go to a restaurant, fast food place, they're tacking on three and a half%. So 2% is a bargain. However, when you're paying on a large amount, of course, 2% of a $1,500 tax bill is $30. So we
get that a lot, but yeah. Well, it's something that you're paying, too. Correct. It goes right to pay the credit card fees. And it's a convenience. Unfortunately, some people need the convenience. It's very easy to pay online, though. That's how I do it. Very easy. Yes. Um, you can pay by mail. Uh, check or
money order only. Please don't mail us cash. Uh, at the tax window, cash or check only or money order. We do not accept credit cards at the window, only online. We do have a dropbox that's located right um by the main doors of the administration building that's
accessible 247. We put the dropbox up during co uh residents like it because if you're working late, you want to stop by on the weekend. It's easy to come drop it. Sometimes people come in, the line's a little long, even though it usually moves quick, they just drop it
in the drop. It's safe. Yeah. And um and we check it daily. Yeah. Um and then also automatic withdrawal. Um, this is a great option, especially if the your mortgage company has been paying your taxes for the last 20, 30
years. People tend to forget that they have to pay this quarterly. So, you can sign up with the township. We have a simple form you fill out. You give us a voided check and then you provide us with an email address. So, about a week before we're going to do it, we send you an email,
you know, hey, Mrs. Smith, um, on or about August 5th, we're going to take this amount out for your taxes. So, it gives people some time. And I know the question has come up. A lot of people call wanting to know why we don't do it on the first. Some people want to know why we don't wait till the last day of the grace period.
We usually do it on or about the 5th of the month because it gives people time. And now a lot of things are direct deposited, but if you're getting a check on the first of the month, it gives you time to deposit it for it to clear before those taxes hit. So that that's a
great option that a lot of homeowners have taken advantage of. That makes sense. I know there are tax relief programs available. And where can the residents apply for these? Well, there's several tax relief programs. There's one for a veteran or a
widow of a veteran. That's $250 a year off your taxes. A senior citizen, disabled, or surviving spouse. Um again, $250 a year off your taxes. I know that's not much, but again that's set by the state. That's the amount,
but you make it available if you qualify. Um for the senior disabled surviving spouse, there are income requirements and um those two applications are available through the tax assessor's office on the second floor. Then there are also some programs uh
directly through the state. the property tax reimbursement program which is also known as the senior freeze, uh the anchor program, and then the new one is the stay New Jersey property tax credit program. Uh for senior citizens, these three programs were rolled into one
application. So the blue book that um seniors used to get in the spring for the property tax freeze, they now got it. It went from the PTR1 to the PAS1. So, they fill out one form. It's all
three applications and then the it goes directly to the state. Um, for non seniors, uh, the state, I believe, is going to be rolling out in the next week or so, the anchor program. Yes. And then also the stay New Jersey property tax credit program. And these
um, more information on these programs are available on our website and we also have a link to the state's website. Yeah. If you go, if you have access to that or you can go to the library, they have the computers there. And if you have questions, you can call and ask as far as where to find.
If you call our tax office, you know, we'll we're happy to. It's important to make sure you keep aware of those though because now, especially given the amount of taxes that we're paying, you want to make sure if you're eligible for something
exactly what's out there. It doesn't cost anything to apply for it. Um, you know, and if you, like you mentioned, if you don't have a computer, don't have access to the internet, you can always go to the library um to to be able to do that. So, and the state ones, I think the uh it's done to at the end of October, so you
have time to check it out. You do, but everything that you can look into, you should. Do you have anything anyone wants to add? No, I just feel like if people have questions about their increase, they could contact the board of education for if they have any questions about
that. I They have a website they could go to, right? And that will give you a breakdown of what's going on too in terms of the budget. Yes. Is that available online? Yep. Their budget is posted on their website. And they do a presentation, you know, same as we do, public presentation that people can
attend and, you know, voice their opinions and concerns. You know, I think it's a very difficult climate for a lot of people. Uh, you know, next year we're going to see more of of this this the other half of the school tax hit us a little bit. So, we're also preparing for
that. Um, but I think what's important here is for people to stay, no pun intended, educated. You know, if you're unsure, these breakdowns that we provided, the slides that we have up on our website really explain this thoroughly. you know, doing the estimate
tax bill created confusion and we absolutely understand that. We're we understand that, you know, for people, okay, 2500 coming out in the third quarter and 2500 coming out in fourth quarter is better than 2500 in third quarter and now I have to pay 3,600. We understand that and we're sensitive to
that. Um, but we did not have a choice this year. This was really where we were at. Um, so we we are sensitive to people having to that extra money coming out. In the end, you're still paying the same, but I get I I understand that. But it's important for people to really
just if they have questions, they are more than welcome to to call the tax collections office. Um, you know, tax collection.com, you know, social media again. I mean, you know, saying stuff like we didn't we didn't do our budget in time, so
therefore our budget was passed, you know, therefore we this happened and all kinds of um misconstrued information that has really caused a lot of confusion. Yeah. Confusion and anger. People are angry. That's why I wish that
each entity could be the collector of the taxes so the people would know where the taxes are being raised because they blame us because we by law have to collect the taxes. So we get blame. I I would just say don't shoot the messenger, especially the employees in the tax office because
they're maintain your old bridge residents, too. And like I said, we understand the frustration and we're we're used to dealing with it. As unpleasant as the estimated tax bill were, they helped a little stabilize
because if they we didn't have that, you would have seen a much larger shock. Yeah. Yeah. Well, you try to stabilize where you can and keep people calm and know that you know that there is a plan here
and that we are trying to do the best we can because next year we're going to see the other half of the tax increase. Well, that's the shoe that hasn't that dropped yet. Yes, exactly. So, we just want to prepare people, give them the information and the tools that they need. So, if you have any more
questions, please reach out. You can reach out to us town or else you can reach out to the board of education. Well, thank you very much again ladies and have a great day and thank you all. Have a great day. [Music]