Municipal Budget Shows Borough Finances Headed for Improvement

A closer look at the upholds claims by borough leadership that the significant cutbacks over the past several years are starting to drive real savings in town.

Although 2012 taxes are up slightly year-over-year—about $20 per household on a property valued at the borough average of $233,000—Collingswood is appropriating fewer dollars overall.

The 2012 municipal budget weighs in at $15.03 million, down 5 percent ($756,000) from a 2011 budget that totaled $15.79 million. Total municipal debt service was up more than 3 percent annually, from $2.564 million in 2011 to $2.646 million in 2012.

“Other expenses” including contingency funds, were up 9 percent, or $416,000 ($4.402 million in 2011 as compared with $4.818 million in 2012).

Yet the most significant costs in the borough remain labor-related, and those are on the decline. Salaries and wages for borough employees were down more than $342,000, or 7 percent, from 2011 figures ($4.822 million in 2011 versus $4.480 million in 2012).

“A lot of that stuff is calculated over a three-year period,” said Mayor Jim Maley. “We’re now seeing the drop in those averages.”

Although salaries and wages for the borough mayor and commissioners rose from $10,608 in 2011 to $21,434 in 2012, Maley says that move only restored them to pre-recession levels.

“Three years ago we cut our salaries in half, and that’s just putting them back where they were,” he said.

Through collective agreements, Collingswood continues to lower its operational costs by partnering with other neighboring communities to jointly retain the services of construction code, engineering, and similar officials at a cheaper price. For both 2011 and 2012, that figure clocks in at $53,969 and is calculated as part of a larger package arrangement.

The borough is also exploring additional revenue generators, including its new parking kiosks. Collingswood expects to raise $131,000 in parking revenues in 2012, up 44 percent, or $47,000, from the $74,000 they produced in 2011.

Maley and Commissioner Mike Hall reported at the borough commissioners meeting Monday that the kiosks will soon accept license plate information rather than printing a paper ticket, which may drive greater use of the terminals.

No cost savings will be achieved in uncollected tax reserves, however. Whereas in 2011 the borough kept $53,956 on-hand to cover anticipated, uncollected taxes, the 2012 municipal budget allocates $124,769 for the same: a 57 percent increase. Maley says there’s nothing to be done for it.

“That is purely calculated on a state formula,” he said. “It doesn’t mean we’ve made a decision to appropriate more money. We have no discretion on what that number is. We do an accelerated tax collection, and our [tax collection rates] have been over 99.9 percent.”