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Budget work begins for next year
(by Cindy Forrest - October 08, 2008)
“Message received” was the response from Rockaway Township Business Administrator Gregory Poff as Mayor Louis Sceusi and members of the town council pummeled him with cautions about the 2009 budget at their meeting last week. It may seem premature but in reality township department heads have sharpened their pencils and begun the annual task of preparing their budgets.
“All of us here want you to cut even more than you did last year,” said Council President Michael Dachisen.
“We’ve had this discussion already,” said Poff, “and I’ve backed it up in a memo. The budget requests went out this week and in the fourth paragraph I said that each department head would need to submit their budgets cut by 5 percent.”
He went on to explain that the cuts for departmental costs would exclude payroll. The initial round of departmental budgets is scheduled to be completed by early November.
“We’re taking a proactive approach,” he assured.
Poff just celebrated his first year in the key position in Rockaway Township. There are also new heads of the finance, health, engineering and police departments in the bustling municipality.
“We’re looking for new energy and new ideas to save the taxpayers money,” said Sceusi. “We’ve been fortunate because we’ve been able to stay ahead of the curve, but these are difficult times and there are considerable concerns about the purchase of municipal bonds, which has driven up the cost of doing business.”
Councilman Paul Minenna noted that there won’t be relief coming from Trenton.
“This is an election year for the governor so likely he’ll give us even less money than he gave us last year,” he said.
Problems in Trenton actually continue to plague municipalities across the state as they are being held responsible for under-funded pensions in addition to the burden of un-funded state mandates, and artificial spending caps.
“We’re going to have to make some hard decisions,” said Poff.
Looking for ways to rein in spending, Dachisen has asked for an accounting of stipends, cell phones, pagers, vehicle use, and particularly take-home cars.
“I’m compiling that list as I’m working on the budget,” Poff told him.
Under Sceusi, the township has aggressively pursued a shared-services program that has brought in significant revenues. Particularly successful is the health department program under the leadership of Diane Trocchio, which garnered well over $100,000 of income this year by providing services to Denville, Chester, Boonton and Randolph.
Poff told the council that an opportunity for shared animal control services under a new Morris County program might be something to consider going forward. Information about that new program is still forthcoming; however, the concept involves the division of the county into two regions where shelter facilities would be located. The two towns being eyed initially are Randolph and Montville.
As the country’s economic problems continue to make headlines elected officials and municipal employees in Rockaway Township are running fast to get a jump on spending in 2009, which promises to be a year for unprecedented belt tightening.
“We have to be frugal this year,” said Councilman John DiMaria, “unless we get a windfall - and I don’t see that happening - there are going to have to be cuts made.”
Cindy Forrest can be contacted at: forrestc@northjersey.com.
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