Politics & Government

Hopatcong Government Leaders Back Tax Cap, Schools Oppose It

Gov. Chris Christie's legislation splits town's decision-makers.

Hopatcong government officials aren't just confident the borough will adjust to the 2-percent tax cap Gov. Chris Christie recently approved. They're confident the cap will benefit residents.

The school district administration, however, isn't so sure.

After months of arguing with legislators and negotiating changes, Christie signed a law that tops off year-to-year tax levy increases for school, municipal and county governments at 2 percent — with a few exemptions for difficult-to-control costs.

Find out what's happening in Hopatcong-Spartawith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The catch: A government can still exceed the cap if holds a referendum seeking voter approval.

The exemptions: debt service payments, health care costs, pension payments and capital expenditures, including new equipment and public works projects — a list smaller than the current 4-percent property tax cap, which allows 14 exemptions.

Find out what's happening in Hopatcong-Spartawith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Hopatcong Councilman Richard Bunce isn't worried about the cap. Nor is he worried about the so-called "toolkit" — a package of 34 proposed bills that would change how local governments do business.

"It's not going to have any adverse effect on us," Bunce said. "We've been preparing for this for years. We're ready to go.

"We restructured the town," he continued, referring to last year's deep budget cuts, which were a result of an unexpected revenue drop. "We decreased our costs. We increased our revenues. And we've continued to increase revenues."

Bunce also said Hopatcong's "a little bit ahead of the curve right now."

"We faced our difficulties the last two years. Now we're starting to reap the benefits of making those decisions," he said. The decisions included cutting a handful of public works employees, privatizing garbage removal and sharing health services with the county.

"It's not a complicated formula. You spend less and bring in more," Bunce said.

Mayor Sylvia Petillo said she liked Christie's willingness to take action.

"At least he's not afraid to make changes," she said.

Petillo wasn't surprised by the governor's actions.

"We were watching the financial situation of the state deteriorate last year as we were going through a crisis ourselves," she said. "We needed to restructure the town and we did it in three months. We changed the way the government offered services so that the services remained the same but the cost got reduced.

"These changes made it possible for us to position ourselves to make it through this year knowing that the state would have a financial crisis."

But school business administrator Theresa Sierchio stood on the other side of the fence.

"I think it's going to be virtually impossible to do," she said, adding that Christie should "impose something on the teachers," like a health care reduction.

"I'm not in favor ... because [Christie has] so many exceptions in that 2 percent cap that you can go around it an increase your taxes by 4 percent if you need something," Sierchio said.

Then Sierchio issued a prediction.

"Wait until you see what happens next year," she said.

Petillo warned, however, that nobody really knows what will happen if the toolkit—which could include measures to further empower county superintendents, institute furloughs and limit superintendent salaries—passes.

Lawmakers expect the toolkit to be finished in the fall.

"We don't know yet," Petillo said. "It's not finished. Everybody's waiting.

"Hopatcong will be fine. We knew what was coming and we made the changes we had to make. Any way you can reduce spending is to benefit the taxpayers."


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