Denville Spring 2023 Budget

At the Tuesday April 4th Town Council Meeting, the Council held a Public Hearing and voted to approve the 2023 Municipal Budget, which I supported. This budget continues with our philosophy of fiscal discipline, which has helped us obtain two upgrades to our bond rating since 2017, which now stands at a rating of Aaa, the best rating conferred by Moody’s. This wasn’t accomplished overnight but instead over a period of years and places Denville in an elite group of slightly more than two dozen municipalities State-wide that are Aaa rated by Moody’s. For a little perspective, that metric would make Denville a top 24 ranked municipality out of 564 municipalities.

The 2023 budget enables the Township to continue to provide the same high level of services to the public and contains no service or staff reductions. Furthermore, the budget contains one of the largest appropriations ever for road resurfacing, with an allocation of more than $1.1 million including grant funding to pave various roads in 2023.

Due to our prolific and aggressive grant writing efforts in conjunction with our conservative fiscal approach, we have developed a plan to be potentially debt free by 2029. In furtherance of this goal, the 2023 budget has 52% of the capital items paid for outright from our local capital improvement fund or by County, State or Federal funding. This is the highest percentage ever and is even more important now as interest rates continue to rise, which directly impact how much it costs us to borrow money and the impact on future years’ budgets.

As mentioned during the budget hearings, there were two primary factors resulting in a slight tax rate at the municipal level, which will result in a $29.51 annual increase for the average assessed property owner. First, the Township saw a $201,710 increase in our State pension costs. The second is the State Health Benefits Insurance premiums increased by $160,000. These two items alone, which are both out of the Township’s control are bills sent to us by the State of New Jersey that we are obligated to pay. They account for a combined $361,710 increase in our general fund appropriations. As a point of comparison, if all else remained equal between the 2022 and 2023 Municipal Budget, these two items alone would account for a $47.93 increase to the average assessed property owner. However, due to the Township effectively managing the other items in the budget under our control, we were able to bring the actual tax impact down to the $29.51 per year.

I would like to quickly highlight some of the other accomplishments in our budget plan:

The Township saw an increase in our yearend fund balance for the 8th consecutive year, further demonstrating our fiscal strength and stability.

The total assessed value of all properties in the Township increased by $17,360,200 between 2022 and 2023, which had the effect of reducing the total tax burden on the average assessed property owner by $10.42 We are in the second year of the St. Clare’s Tax Appeal Settlement, which saw a nearly $30,000,000 drop in our ratable base in 2022. Due to our savvy financial planning, we were able to settle the tax appeal with little to no financial impact.

Besides the $1.1 million appropriated towards road resurfacing, the budget also contains funding to restore the historic 2-room schoolhouse at 501 Openaki Road, which will provide for expanding meeting space for local organizations to use and for continued on page 7