Tax rate flat in early budget draft
By ROBERT LINNEHAN
The Cherry Hill Sun
6/19/2009

Residents can expect a flat tax rate moving forward into the new fiscal year and a reduction in their overall tax bills, according to township representatives.

The Cherry Hill Council proposed its 2010 fiscal year budget, which will see an overall reduction of about $1 million from the 2009 budget. Residents with an average assessed home of $140,000 in the township will see a reduction of about $120 in their total tax bill when they’re mailed out in July, representatives said.

The township was able to maintain the lowest tax rate in Camden County, Mayor Bernie Platt said, through a series of cost cutting measures that began last year. The municipal rate will stay flat at

84 cents per every $100 of assessed property value.

The total tax bill for the third and fourth quarter of 2009-10 will be about $3,800 for an average assessed home, Communications Director Dan Keashen said.

“My commitment has always been to operate Town Hall like my small business by providing residents with the best possible value for every cent of tax money we collect,” Platt said, adding he believes the current economic climate dictates that he has a moral obligation not to make the fiscal difficulties being experienced by households and businesses more difficult.

The council began instigating staff layoffs, mergers of township departments and wage freezes to help offset the tax rate during these tough economic times, Platt said.

Also, the township bolstered cost savings through a variety of sustainable initiatives, including federal and state funds secured for a municipal energy audit, a new HVAC system and a 100-kW rooftop solar project.

The rooftop project will utilize the sun to subsidize approximately 20 percent of energy usage in Town Hall and provide Cherry Hill’s revenue coffer with more than $10,000 a month in revenue from the sale of Solar Renewable Energy Credits.

“As many of our neighboring communities are experiencing large increases, I have drawn a blueprint that comes with no increase on the local levy. We know that many hard choices are being made at kitchen tables throughout Cherry Hill. This is why it is critical for us to make the right fiscal choices in order to support our citizens,” Platt said. “During this national crisis, we cannot compound the pain that people are feeling in our neighborhoods and our marketplace.”

Township Council President Steve Polansky said coming in at a zero percent tax increase, while maintain the level of services residents have become accustomed too, was the main goal when constructing this budget.

“We will continue to deliver all of the services our residents have come to expect and the services our residents have moved to the township for,” he said.

The introduction of the 2010 fiscal year budget comes only two months after the committee passed the final form of the 2009 fiscal year budget. It was an unprecedented event, Keashen said, for the township to adopt the final version of the budget this late in the year. The Department of Community Affairs took so long to adopt its extraordinary aid figures it forced the township to continuously delay its final budget hearing, he said.

“Now we are moving forward. We are charting a course that will hold the line and preserve our core mission of providing essential services that the people of Cherry Hill have come to trust,” Platt said. “This preliminary budget will ensure that Cherry Hill sticks to our moral obligation and continues to be the best place to live in Camden County at the lowest possible cost to the taxpayer.”