Hillsborough's 2024 Budget With Tax Increase Gets Mixed Reactions (2024)

Supporters hailed the budget for fully funding police, road repairs, and park upgrades. But critics blasted the $54 million in debt owed.

Posted Thu, Jun 13, 2024 at 10:48 am ET

The Township Committee passed the $40.6 million municipal budget at the June 11 meeting, which includes a 0.15 municipal tax rate increase.

An average home assessed in 2024 at $547,000 will pay $1,679.29 per year or $139.94 per month for the municipal services portion of the tax bill. This is an increase from the 2023 budget of $82.05 per year and $6.83 per month.

Highlights of the budget include:

• Fully funding the police department, which includes obtaining License Plate Readers(LPR)
• Repaving 17 roads
• Protecting open space
• Upgrades to Township parks including adding a Pickleball court, and repairing a basketball court

The largest appropriations from the budget go toward 24 percent for Public Safety (funding police, OEM, municipal prosecutor, municipal court); 14 percent for Public Works (includes streets and roads, snow removal, buildings and grounds, recycling, leaf cleanup program and parks); and 12 percent for Municipal Offices (including administrative clerk, elections, finance, tax collection, planning and zoning, health, etc.)

Committeeman and Budget Liason Shawn Lipani said the township took into account public input when crafting the budget.

"They have made it abundantly clear that our infrastructure needs to be addressed, that our parks and recreation are a big part of why people come to Hillsborough and stay in Hillsborough, and they wanted us to address some of the amenities that are new and wanted some areas of disrepair to be addressed," said Lipani. "Lastly and most importantly is the welfare and public safety of this community. We are not any different than any other municipality in the state of New Jersey, but we made a commitment to do everything in our power to give our police force what they need to keep us safe."

The LPRs will help the Hillsborough Police "coordinate with other towns and counties as people transfer through the corridor of [Route] 206 to identify the cars and the perpetrators who steal cars as they come in and enter through our town," said Lipani.

Overall, Lipani said he was "proud of the budget."

"I feel for a $6.78 a month increase … or 23 cents a day what it comes out to I think that is a pretty good return on investment," said Lipani. "Let's face it all the costs have gone up. There isn’t a home in this town, state that is feeling the crunch of the economy... Let's just be honest, and we are not immune to it but we were able to control it and fiscally put a budget out that gives the people all the protection, all of the amenities, keep the staff here, we had no layoffs."

Committeewoman Samantha Hand's reaction to the budget was not as favorable who noted that the budget included about $54 million in debt owed by the Township - which she said was the result of the prior administration's decisions. She also added that on four of the five debts the Township was only paying interest and not going toward the principal.

"It just seems like it was not well managed. And now all of a sudden we are trying to make up for it. The taxpayers of today are needing to make up for transgressions... of years past," said Hand.

While the budget increase is $6.83 per month more than last year, Hand noted it still impacts residents.

"Guess what? It is money out of the pockets of our residents and I have a responsibility. We all have a responsibility to make sure that this is managed appropriately and we are responsible adults. And budgets don't get passed for political reasons to make arguments look good. We should be doing the right thing for the town every single year," said Hand.

Lipani accused Hand of being "disingenuous" and "grandstanding." He noted that Hand had not raised concerns or asked questions on the budget prior to the Tuesday night meeting.

"You didn’t make recommendations to us or the CFO," said Lipani. "You had ample time to make comments on this budget prior to tonight and you made none. So you can continue to say all you want about being proactive and having concerns, yet you offered none."

Committeewoman Catherine Payne said that while she appreciated Hand's comments she was looking forward.

"Things may not have been done well in the past but I am looking forward to what we can do in the future with this steady footing that we’re putting the town back on," said Payne "The numbers Hand mentioned are astronomical but we are moving in the right direction."

Deputy Mayor John Ciccarelli asked the Township CFO Alicia Noon about the Township's debt ratio. Noon said it was well within the range allowable.

"We are moving forward. And if anybody wants to play in the past I think it's such political garbage. Let's move forward," said Mayor Robert Britting. "Frankly I am disgusted by the politics I saw tonight. I actually, just it's disgusting and these questions could’ve been asked earlier. We are moving forward."

During public comment, one resident Maria Janucik and Assemblyman Roy Freiman questioned the budget further.

"I think it was very important to know what the Hillsborough debt is as a Hillsborough property owner and Hillsborough taxpayer. When things are discussed here I find it egregious when Commiteemen are nasty to each other because that’s important to hear," said Janucik. "$50 million being owed and 4 of 5 items are just interest being paid, that’s poor financial."

Freiman also questioned the Committee about the surplus going down $1 million from $4.5 million to $3.5 million.

"This year's budget utilizes a million dollars of surplus," said Freiman.

The budget was ultimately passed with Hand being the lone "no" vote.

"For the reasons I have stated, with a debt of $54 million and a budget of $40 million I am voting no," said Hand.

Britting said passing the budget was "the right thing to do to move our Township in a really good position financially and keep our families safe."

Watch the full budget presentation and commentary below (begins around 1:18:00):

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