WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP — The streak may be over.
After three years without a municipal tax increase, residents of Gloucester County's most populous town could face a higher levy under a $17.5 million budget introduced last night by council. The proposed spending plan is $1 million more than the 1996 budget.
To finance it, the local purpose-tax levy would have to go from 35 cents for each $100 of assessed valuation to 44 cents.
For the owner of a property assessed at $100,000, the total bill would be $440, a $90 increase.
Mayor Gerald Luongo said a large portion would go toward fulfilling the first phase of a $10 million plan to shift part of Washington Township's state-mandated affordable-housing burden - about 500 units - onto another municipality. The township then would pay that community, which probably will be Camden, $20,000 for each unit, he said.
Also included in the plan is money for repairs to East Holly Avenue and Salina Road, new police cars, and a tunnel under Hurffville-Grenloch Road connecting parts of the township athletic complex.
About 2 cents of the increase would be directed toward the purchase of the municipal library building, on which the current lease has expired, Luongo said. The library has budgeted $200,000 for the purchase, leaving $425,000 to be picked up by the township, he said.
No municipal department would get additional funds under the proposed budget, Luongo said.
A public hearing on the budget has been scheduled for 7 p.m. March 25.
``No one wants a tax increase,'' Luongo said, boasting of his three recent budgets that required no additional tax revenue. ``But these plans are costly. And the people have said they want them.''
