2013 West Deptford Budget: Taxes Up $186 on Average

The public comment portion of the township committee meeting Thursday night was interrupted three times with an ear-splitting feedback loop from microphones on the dais that halted all communication for a solid 30 seconds each time.

If you were looking for a clearer metaphor to describe the atmosphere of West Deptford government meetings in advance of the 2013 budget introduction, you wouldn’t have to go much further than that.

Staring down the introduction of a budget that would levy 9¢ per $100 of assessed value, the governing body couldn’t even get a motion on the table at its prior meeting.

Mayor Ray Chintall was having none of that in the May 16 proceedings, however. He pre-empted any conflict among his fellow committee members with a set of prepared remarks.

“We normally go into a discussion prior to a vote,” Chintall said. “However, at this point, I hesitate to proceed in that manner as a result of the last meeting’s proceedings.

“I have asked numerous times in the past, from all of us in this room, for civility, for professionalism and proper decorum in governmental meetings,” he said. “We have serious issues at hand. What I’m asking for all of us is to act as responsible adults. 

“I’m going to open the floor with extreme trepidation, so I ask those on the committee for three simple things tonight and going forward: one, cooperation; two, collaboration; and three, at least professional communication.”

Revenues down, taxes up

Revenues in the township have declined $188 million from 2012 levels, Chintall said, reducing the local tax base from $2.5 billion to $2.35 billion.

“The penny is worth $235,000 versus the $254,000 it was worth last year,” he said, raising taxes on the average homeowner in the township $186.39 on a property assessed at $207,102, the township average.

That's in addition to the approximately $123 by which school-related taxes are scheduled to increase in 2013, for a whopping $309 increase on the average homeowner.)

Those figures weren’t necessarily news to Committeeman Sam Cianfarini—who told Patch on Wednesday that the county government “won’t tell us their assessment in this town”—although he was surprised to hear township administrator Eric Campo assert that the assessed value of the town had been known “since the beginning of the year.”

According to Campo, that figure is $2.35 billion, and “we got that confirmed in March.

“The county equalization tables were circulated on April 2,” Campo said. “We do have the assessed values of what the penny raises.”

After the meeting, Cianfarini explained that the confusion was related to his uncertainty in whether he should have taken those numbers to be exact or roundabout figures.

“[Campo and I] had a phone conversation that it’s okay to use $235[,000], but we don’t have the official numbers from the county yet,” he said.

Moreover, the reason for the tax anticipation note, Campo said during the proceedings, is not because the township budget was delayed by information withheld at the county level, as Patch reported, but rather because West Deptford is on the hook for a $6.1 million balloon payment in the Sunoco tax appeal.

“Even if the budget were already out and up for adoption, those bills would not be due until August 1,” Campo said. “The payment we had was due on July 1.

“The need for the tax anticipation notice is simply a cash flow issue because of the extraordinary amount, which is larger than what the typical municipality would have in reserves,” he said.

According to Campo, West Deptford taxpayers should receive a decreased county tax levy of around $6 million in the third and fourth quarters of the year to compensate for the anticipation notice.

“Even though the township has to raise that itself, we do not get that back,” he said.

Still, Cianfarini said, the 9¢ budget did not sit well with his cost-cutting agenda.

“I’d like to at least get [the average household tax increase] down to $103.55, and I’ll push for that, if not more,” he said after the meeting, “but we’re digesting a lot of stuff here that’s been many years in the coming.”