Boro faces budget shortfall
BY ERIN O. STATTEL Staff Writer

MATAWAN — With three months left in 2008, the borough is scrambling to pay some bills and is dipping into next year's budget for funds.

"This is going to be a long road back for the borough," said Mayor Paul Buccellato in an Oct. 8 interview. "I don't care how this happened, the council majority failed to do what they were elected to do. They were elected to uphold a fiduciary responsibility, and they didn't."

At the Oct. 7 meeting, the Borough Council approved an emergency resolution authorizing the borrowing of funds from next year's budget.

According to the resolution, the borough needs to borrow $160,000 from the 2009 municipal budget: $100,000 to cover the health insurance line item, $47,500 to cover the cost of utilities, and $12,500 to cover the street lighting line item.

According to Buccellato's update on the budget, the current shortage in the health care line item is $464,441.77 as of Oct. 2. That line item was budgeted for almost $1.3 million.

"That line item was budgeted for $1,292,900," said Borough Administrator Fred Carr in an Oct. 9 interview. "The bills are higher than anticipated."

The motion passed by a 5-1 vote with Councilwoman Linda Clifton the sole opposing vote.

"In light of the situation, I just think we should have cut more somewhere," she said as the roll call was being taken. "I have to vote no on this."

Buccellato expressed his disappointment after the motion was passed.

"For the past several months, I have sat here [warning of this]. It is a shame that council did not listen to two of the people with the most experience up here," he said referring to himself and the Finance Committee chairman, Councilman Mike Cannon. "Honestly, this is probably one of two of these resolutions."

During the public portion of the meeting, residents also voiced their concerns about starting next year's budget with a deficit.

Resident Tom Fitzsimmons, who is also running for a seat on the Borough Council, drew the audience's attention to the emergency resolution and asked Buccellato and Carr if other line items were overexpended.

"Do other items exceed what they were budgeted for?" he asked the council members.

Carr responded that state budget laws restrain the borough from transferring money from other line items until Nov. 1, but the borough still has to pay bills; therefore, an emergency appropriation is needed from next year's budget to cover costs in the meantime.

"The costs of living are going up, and I have no control over people getting sick," he said.

"This is the second year in a row to borrow," Fitzsimmons said. "It's been brought up, but not one person has brought up a way to cut spending … or address the issue at all. You have carried on as if there is no problem. Is this going to be the last time we have to come back and make an emergency appropriation?"

Carr said that he hoped the borough would not have to borrow money from next year's budget during the remaining months of 2008.

"We are hoping not to. I can't say yes and I can't say no," he told Fitzsimmons. "There are a lot of intangibles I have no control over. The weather being one of them."

Fitzsimmons said the measure amounted to a dereliction of duty on the council's part.

"I want to know, how do you borrow from next year's budget when you don't have tax money yet?" asked resident Agnes Falk during the public comment portion of the meeting. "Can we all do that with [paying] our taxes, tell you to take some from next year's tax bill? … I am just disgusted that we are borrowing money in October. We should all move."

Carr explained on Oct. 8 that the emergency resolution is simply borrowing money from the next year's budget that will be replaced.

"Emergency appropriations are fully funded, and then we pay it back as part of the 2009 municipal budget," he said.

He also said that he couldn't divulge the reason for the health care line item overrun.

"That would be a gross violation of the health insurance privacy laws," Carr said. "I cannot describe who uses more of our health insurance."

Buccellato said on Oct. 8 that the borough is looking into purchasing electricity through a consortium from a corporation that sells electricity to municipalities at a discounted rate.

"We all know utility costs are going up," he said. "So during a workshop session we decided to look into working with a company who sells electricity to a consortium of municipalities at a discounted rate. Right now, there are 12 to 14 municipalities that I know of participating in this, many of them nearby. So, we are going to bring in this private corporation to look at our energy consumption with the hopes of joining shared services with other municipalities."

As for the borough's spending on medical benefits for borough employees, Buccellato said that would be under review.

"At a workshop [meeting] we brought in a health insurance agent to review, at no cost, our current policies and claims experience and go out to the marketplace to get the same coverage at a lower price for the borough," he said.