Belleville Town Council Meeting and Public Budget Hearing – Sept 8, 2015

This meeting includes a public hearing on the proposed 2015 municipal budget, which must be adopted by the end of the month. At present, this budget results in a tax increase for residents of $234 on a home assessed at $238,000. If your property is valued higher, of course your increase will be more.

Here is a copy of the budget document, which was not offered to residents on the municipal website, but was obtained via an OPRA request:

Belleville 2015 Proposed Budget

Here is the pre-meeting agenda that was offered on the website:

Pre-meeting agenda

Note that while the pre-meeting agenda lists 15 resolutions on the table, a 16th resolution suddenly appeared on the agenda given out at the meeting regarding property described only as “Block 10002, Lot 1” and “Block 9103, Lot 1”.

Upon being questioned about the actual location of the property being discussed, the Council admitted this was the Walter Kidde/Finkelstein property. You’ll likely remember this property some months back as being the subject of the very contentious “Second River Station” battle involving multiple 50-story high-rise buildings that was fought successfully by many of us.

Trying to slip that one past us, gentlemen?

With this Resolution 16 on the agenda, the Council is authorizing the Planning Board to investigate whether or not the extensive 28-acre property can be designated as an “Area In Need of Redevelopment”.

Why are we not surprised.

Jeff Mattingly addresses this issue in the public comment portion of the meeting.

Part 1

Part 2

The next Council meeting is scheduled for September 22 at 6 PM, at which time we expect there will be another public hearing on the budget. Don’t miss the opportunity to sound off on the township’s spending, and these looming tax increases.

Update: Here is NorthJersey.com’s coverage of the meeting:

Belleville council postpones budget adoption