{"id":14357,"date":"2024-03-29T13:06:32","date_gmt":"2024-03-29T13:06:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/onhee.com\/?p=14357"},"modified":"2024-12-11T12:25:30","modified_gmt":"2024-12-11T12:25:30","slug":"no-municipal-tax-increase-in-initial-budget-for-westfield","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/onhee.com\/?p=14357","title":{"rendered":"No Municipal Tax Increase In Initial Budget For Westfield"},"content":{"rendered":"

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WESTFIELD, NJ \u2014 Westfield homeowners will have good news coming their way on the tax front if the proposed 2024 municipal budget passes muster.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, Westfield officials introduced its $53 million municipal budget which includes no increase in 2024 for the municipal portion of the tax bill.<\/p>\n

“This is only the second time over the last 20 years that a zero percent tax rate has been accomplished,” said Councilwoman Linda Habgood during the Council meeting.<\/p>\n

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Find out what's happening in Westfieldwith free, real-time updates from Patch.<\/h2>\n

The flat tax rate was due in part to the Town performing well in 2023, in large part due to reserves, healthy tax collections, investment income, improved revenues, and the settlement with Senior Housing, according to Habgood.<\/p>\n

“I\u2019m proud to report that we generated an incredible $10.2 million in surplus to end the year with an all-time high $15.4 million surplus balance. This enviable financial position allows us the flexibility to not only make significant and strategic investments in the areas most requested by residents \u2013 public safety, parks and recreation, paving and drainage, and public services, as well as the personnel to support these efforts now and in the future \u2013 but also allows us to manage the tax rate and deliver a 0 percent municipal increase this year,” said Habgood.<\/p>\n

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Find out what's happening in Westfieldwith free, real-time updates from Patch.<\/h2>\n

The $53,380,475 budget takes into account the average assessed home in Westfield for 2024 at $820,900, which is up from $812,800 in 2023.<\/p>\n

Business Administrator Jim Gildea highlighted some of the Town’s accomplishments including paving 75 miles of roads since 2019. For 2024, Gildea anticipated 18.7 miles of roads will be paved.<\/p>\n

Included in the budget were expenses associated with Personnel including increasing overtime for police to assist in speeding initiatives and continuing crime prevention.<\/p>\n

Additionally, the Town is adding new positions including a full-time town engineer, Deputy Fire Chief, two firefighters, four public works laborers, an assistant health officer, a plumbing inspector, an assistant zoning officer, a technical assistant to the Construction Official, and part-time clerk in the Tax Collectors Office.<\/p>\n

The budget also includes technology enhancements such as expanding and promoting the Westfield Connect app, continuing technology improvements for the building department, parking system upgrades including online permitting and waitlist management, and a new parking payment app.<\/p>\n

Under capitol improvements the Town is looking to undertake a stormwater cleaning along Robinson\u2019s Branch; Tamaques Park design plan; fueling station renovation at public works; Tamaques Park tennis court resurfacing; and more.<\/p>\n

“The Recreation Commission is in the process of forming a steering committee to explore a design plan for Tamaques Park in order to upgrade existing facilities and provide additional offerings \u2013 including more parking, fields, pickleball courts, and walking trails, as well as the possible relocation of the ice rink from Gumbert Park,” said Councilman David Kiefer.<\/p>\n

Following the outcome of the Edison Fields vote, the Town has started to collaborate with the Westfield Public Schools to make progress on improving playing fields. <\/p>\n

“The proposed budget includes working with a professional consultant in partnership with the Board of Education to formulate curated grass field maintenance plans for all Town and school district fields for the benefit of the community, with the long-term potential to have the Town ultimately oversee the care and maintenance for all,” said Mayor Shelley Brindle.<\/p>\n

A public hearing and final vote on the budget will be held on April 30.<\/p>\n

Have a news tip? Email <\/em>alexis.tarrazi@patch.com<\/em><\/p>\n

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Click:custom clothing dance costume WESTFIELD, NJ \u2014 Westfield homeowners will have good news coming their way on the tax front if the proposed 2024 municipal budget passes muster. On Tuesday, Westfield officials introduced its $53 million municipal budget which includes no increase in 2024 for the municipal portion of the tax bill. “This is only … <\/p>\n

Read more “No Municipal Tax Increase In Initial Budget For Westfield”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14357","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/onhee.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14357","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/onhee.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/onhee.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onhee.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onhee.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14357"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/onhee.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14357\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15452,"href":"https:\/\/onhee.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14357\/revisions\/15452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/onhee.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onhee.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onhee.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}