SO Municipal Budget Passes, With Questions from Public

On Monday night, at 8:20 p.m. Mark Rosner brought down the gavel on the 2010 South Orange municipal budget. Sitting in for Village President Douglas Newman, Rosner heard comments from the public before the budget was put forth for a vote.  With Newman and Janine Bauer absent, the vote passed 5-0.

"I do think it's a good budget," said Michael Goldberg before he voted. This year's tax increase was held to 1.94%. (Further details are available here.)

However, at least one member of the public expressed skepticism, especially about continued funding for SOPAC. Robert Chandross spoke to the Board twice, raising questions about public money headed for non-profits.  Nancy Heins-Glaser asked questions about ten-percent cuts that she heard mentioned at a previous meeting, specifically as those cuts impact non-profits.

South Orange funds non-profits Main Street South Orange (MSSO), YouthNet, the Community Coalition on Race (CCR) and SOPAC. Earlier in the year, Village Administrator John Gross recommended cutting funding to MSSO from $50,000 to $45,000 and for YouthNet—which is also funded by Maplewood—from $15,000 to $13,500. The Board decided to keep their funding at 2009 levels.

Gross's recommendation to trim funding to the Community Coalition on Race (which also receives funds from Maplewood) from $25,000 to $22,500 was accepted at that time. Likewise, SOPAC funding was trimmed from the originally proposed $255,000 to $229,500.

However, the net funding from the Village to SOPAC stands at $279,712, up from $209,751 in 2009. In 2008 and 2009, SOPAC repaid the Village for short-term debt service—for $156,617 and $162,517, respectively. SOPAC's payment, some $140,710, is due this month, and is unlikely to be repaid, a concern that Chandross raised at Monday's meeting. He further noted that a public meeting that SOPAC officials agreed in 2009 to hold has not yet happened.

SOPAC's new Executive Director Michael Bollinger  is scheduled to make a quarterly presentation at Monday's Board of Trustees meeting.

Trustees noted that budget work is ongoing, and public workshops held on the third Monday of most months are helpful in understanding both the budget process and the product.

The total tax bill that a South Orange resident receives reflects the not only the Village budget, as a tax bill breakdown demonstrated. Municipal spending accounts for 27.4 percent of that bill, while Open Space (Municipal and County) is 0.4 percent, and County taxes total 15.9 percent. The largest portion of a taxpayer's bill funds schools, which account for 56.3 percent of the total.  The County budget has not been finalized for this year, but is expected within the next several days.