MOUNT OLIVE (12/08/05) – Township officials are going into a third gloomy year as far as budgeting for local government services are concerned. One thing for sure is local property taxes are going up again.

The best available estimates made at last week’s Township Council meeting was that current projections indicate at least a 72 cent increase on each $1,000 of assessed value. On a home with an assessed value of $200,000 that could mean an increase in taxes of about $144. Assessed value and market value are two different figures. Homes are assessed at considerably less than their true value.

Which brings up another possible nightmare that was talked about in this year’s Council campaign….a town wide reassessment which could be ordered by the State.

Council President Rob Greenbaum said it’s been almost 10 years since the last reassessment and he had been told the town could expect to be ordered to conduct one. Normally, reassessments in municipalities are to be conducted every 10 years and normally in reassessments taxes go up.

And still two other harbingers of further tax increases could come courtesy of the State of New Jersey. One is a state order that all state wastewater management plans must be in compliance with state regulations by May 25 or face the possibility of being taken over. That would be devastating for Mount Olive.

However, Councilman Steve Rattner, who also serves as the vice chairman of the Musconetcong Sewerage Authority, in which Mount Olive is a member, said the authority presently meets state guidelines, however, if stricter storm water regulations are adopted the township would have to share in the costs of the upgrades plus the costs of water and sewer rates would be affected.

The other concern is the impact the Highlands Water Protection and Planning Act will have as the Highlands Commission develops a master plan for the region. Currently, the township is considerably handicapped by zoning regulations, particularly in the International Trade Zone. The sprawling and very attractive BASF site, is not very attractive to potential tenants or owners because of zoning and further development restrictions.

The governing body is working to find attractive industry as is the Economic Development Commission which currently is developing a marketing plan.

The time was…up till three years ago…the local government services portion of the budget could be kept fairly stable.

However, when BASF pulled up stakes to move elsewhere the budget took a severe hit. The company is still paying taxes on its property in the International Trade Zone but nowhere near what they were paying and last year the company was successful in winning a significant tax appeal. In addition, several other firms in the trade zone have won successful tax appeals in the past two years.

And, all this is to say nothing of what is going to happen with the school board budget.