On Monday night, July 25, the South Orange Board of Trustees approved the 2016 South Orange municipal budget.
The $34,639,072.84 budget necessitates a tax levy increase of 1.9% — which translates into a tax rate increase of 2% “due to a $2.05 million decreased in total assessed values.” Village Administrator Barry Lewis said the budget represented the seventh straight year that the Village would approve a budget with a tax levy increase below 2%.
With the average assessed home value at $459,258.07, the average homeowner will see a tax increase of $93.33.
As part of the second hearing on the ordinance for the budget, Lewis used slides to illustrate budget highlights (see the full presentation below).
Village Green will be highlighting individual slides from the presentation over the next few weeks, starting with the above chart on “Where Do Your Tax Dollars Go?”
The slide shows that 58% of local tax dollars go to the South Orange-Maplewood School District, 25% to the Township of South Orange Village, 16% to Essex County and 1% to the reserve for uncollected taxes.
