UPDATE: Stafford Township adopts 2013 budget of nearly $45 million

In a unanimous vote, the township council approved a budget that calls for more than $43 million in appropriations to run the township this fiscal year.

Despite the loss of close to 18 percent in the dollar value of ratables for township properties due mostly to Hurricane Sandy, the township’s municipal tax levy only increased 1.51 percent over 2012’s, said Mayor John Spodofora. The loss translated to close to $4 million in lost tax revenue, said Township Administrator James Moran earlier.

Overall, the ratables in Stafford declined from $43 billion to $36 billion due mostly to the severe damage in Beach Haven West due to Sandy, said the mayor. 

The slight rate increase was made possible in part by a more than $3.124 million low interest Community Disaster Loan from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Spodofora said.

“There was also a lot of give and take and tough decisions made by us to keep the rate as low as possible in these hard times,” said the mayor while praising Moran, Councilman Henry Mancini, head of the Finance Committee and the township’s CFO Douglas Gannon for forging the final budget.

The FEMA loans were made available to communities whose tax base was impacted by Sandy. Initially issued as low interest loans, the debt can be forgiven at a later date, added the mayor.

Additional savings were made in other areas, including decreasing the Open Space Levy by 75 percent for this year. While the levy is normally only one dollar is does add up as every penny in the tax rate equals $360,000 in this year’s this year budget.

The final budget came in well under the CAP limits set by the state of New Jersey, said Spodofora. It was nearly $850,000 under the allowed Expenditure CAP and calls for imposed revenues that are more than $2 million under the state imposed Revenue CAP of $33,625,922.00 for the township.  

Writing and reporting by Steve Moran