Salisbury Township Aims for No New Taxes

are working on the 2012 budget and are trying to avoid a tax increase, Township Manager Randy Soriano said during the workshop following the Sept. 22 board meeting.

Officials had no budget numbers to release. The township administration is meeting with every department head to review individual line items and request.

“We have never met so much to discuss the budget,” said Cathy Bonaskiewich, assistant township manager and finance director.

“I think this year is healthier than other years,” she said, although realty transfer tax and interest income are not as large as they used to be.

By early next month, officials said they will have a better idea of how much health care will cost next year. Last year, health care costs increased 7 percent, but have increased by 32 percent in previous years, Bonaskiewich said.

“,” said Soriano, but added that changes in the public sector aren’t as easy to make as in the private sector.

The commissioners voted to set the township’s minimum municipal obligation payable to the police and non-uniformed pension plans for next year at 3.886 percent, up from this year’s rate of 1.54 percent, for a total of $229,677. If state aid allocations, employee contributions and other finances allow, the board has the option of reducing this amount before the end of the year and the amount will be budgeted for 2012.

In other business, the board approved bids for the sale of four used police cars to various dealers in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Chicago for a total of $12,588.

“More than we thought,” Soriano said.