Township Council passes 2003 municipal budget ABERDEEN — After waiting to see if it would receive state extraordinary aid, the Township Council passed its municipal budget with no tax increase. The $12.2 million budget was ap­proved at the council’s June 17 meeting. This is the third straight year without an increase. The township finance department’s hard work led to the stable municipal tax rate, Deputy Mayor Owen Drapkin has said. "We try to look for efficiencies wherever we can," Mayor David Sobel said. "You try to keep it as flat as possi­ble for as long as possible." No budgetary problems prevents a town like Aberdeen from receiving ex­traordinary aid, he said. "It’s for the towns that financially have problems with their budgets," he said. The council applied for aid anyway because it believes it’s the right thing to do for the town’s residents, Drapkin has said. Drapkin thinks the state should re­ward towns with efficient budgets and not only consider towns with inefficient ones, he said. A tax increase should be expected at some point, Sobel said. "I don’t think it’s reasonable to ex­pect it to go on forever," he said. "You try to keep it as flat as possible for as long as possible."