Sad Eyes

On February 17, the BOT held the most recent Budget Workshop. This time, we focused on reaching a conclusion on Recreation Fees, reviewing the budget of the Police Department and reviewing the budget for the Department of Public Works.

With respect to Recreation, it was agreed to do the following:

• increase the fees for Summer Camp to $700/child, with a $100 discount for each additional child per family (beyond one)
• increase the fees for Recreation Badges to $30/person, with a maximum of $120/family
• increase the fees for programs at the Baird by $10
• implement a $10 discount for residents that sign up for Baird programs and have a Recreation Badge

With respect to the Police Department, no formal decisions were reached, however it was recommended that the vacant positions that currently exist in the Department not be filled at this time. However to help meet the Policing needs of the community, it was strongly suggested that the Police Officer currently assigned to Information Management be utilized as a Police Officer and the position of Information Management be filled by a Civilian. In addition, it was strongly suggested that additional per diem dispatchers and Crossing Guards be identified, so Police Officers are not utilized to fill-in for those jobs, causing costly overtime expenses to occur.

With respect to Public Works, the joint bid with Maplewood for large turf mowing was discussed and identified as an area to save around $180,000/year.

However, even with all of these changes, an enormous budget gap still remains. As a result, this past Monday night, the BOT voted to submit a layoff plan to the State of NJ which proposes the elimination of the following positions:

• Public Works – 5 positions
• Recreation and Cultural Affairs – 2 positions
• Code Enforcement & Inspections – 4 positions
• Municipal Court – 1 position

The Board of Trustees also is recommending to the Board of the South Orange Library that it eliminate two positions, in addition to not filling one open position. (The BOT simply controls the amount of money provided to the Library, but the Library Board actually determines how that money is spent)

Clearly, this process has been the most difficult thing we have been faced with and none of these decisions were reached easily or with any pleasure. However, the Village taxpayers spend over $22M for personnel (including salary, benefits and taxes) in a budget of almost $34.5M for 176.5 full time employees across all departments. In addition, over 62% of personnel costs are just for Public Safety (Police and Fire) alone.

As I have said on this blog and publicly numerous times, this financial situation is simply unsustainable. South Orange is one of the most "tax-stressed" communities in the State and something must be done to help the residents. I urge the Unions that represent the majority of the Village employees to work diligently to put an end to the spiraling costs of salaries, health care and benefits for the sake of all residents and employees.

The Big Muddy

Once again, it is Budget season and the Board of Trustees has begun holding frequent Budget Workshops to analyze the budget and determine what should be included this year and what won't. As expected, just like EVERY organization, times are very difficult this year with the unprecedented economic climate we face. However, far worse than expected is that we are looking down the barrel of a $5 MILLION budget gap, which would translate to a 27% Municipal Tax increase if nothing were done!

Clearly, a 27% increase is completely unacceptable. However, we are now faced with the difficult task of determining what elements of the budget should be trimmed to reduce the gap.

At this point, the largest drivers of the increase are: Reduced Surplus (about $1.8M), Personnel Costs, Fixed Costs, Reduced State Aid, (last year we received $600k in extraordinary aid that we cannot count on again), Debt Service and Capital Improvements. With respect to Capital Improvements, we have identified approximately $11M of projects that are LONG overdue, such as replacement of vehicles, building maintenance and roadway improvements for which money has never been set aside. To undertake these projects, requires a 5% "down payment", which equates to almost $550k. It might be easy to suggest deferring these improvements, but the problem is that has been the "answer" for many many years and at some point the work must be done or we will face the situation of the Old Stone House with many more assets of the town.

So, to deal with these challenges, we asked all Village Departments to propose how they can cut a percentage of their current budgets by reducing services/staff costs and/or what revenue could be increased. Monday night, we met with the first two departments - Library and Recreation to hear their proposals.

From Library, the proposals came to a net change of 0%...which unfortunately does not help the situation.

From Recreation, some proposals were presented as follows:

• Increase the cost of Recreation Badges/Guest Passes/Babysitter Passes
• Increase the cost of Summer Day Camp
• Increase the cost of program fees
• Eliminate the fireworks from Village Aglow
• Reduce some costs for Holiday Lighting

At this point, no final decisions have been made. Depending on the severity of these increases, this COULD generate an additional $200k or so, but that is still a long long way away from $5M!

The next Budget Workshop is February 17 at 7:30pm in Village Hall