Berkeley Council Adopts $61 Million Budget

BERKELEY – At the June Township Council meeting, the governing body approved and adopted the $61 million 2024 budget.

According to the Township, the budget is $61,450,458.49, which is over a $5 million increase from the 2023 budget.

“It took seven meetings in total to come up with this budget. It wasn’t an easy budget to tie together. There is a minimum increase of 3.47% this year on this budget. It’s something we couldn’t avoid,” Mayor John Bacchione said before the budget presentation. “We will not compromise any of the services, what the Township provides such as police, fire, volunteers, rescues services, sanitation, public works – everything will be intact.”

Of the total budget, $39,904,099.72 is coming from taxes – making up about 65% of the revenue.

“There is an appropriation cap and a levy cap that we must follow and this budget meets both. So, we don’t have any cap issues right now,” Christine Manolio, Chief Financial Officer/Treasurer, said.

“We increased the use of Surplus. We also got more Municipal Revenue. The State Aid went up a little because of the Municipal Relief Tax. The Delinquent Tax Receipts went up and the General Taxation went up a little over $2 million,” Manolio added.

As for expenditures, the two largest categories the 2024 budget will be spent on are Operating Expenses as well as Salary and Wages. Operating Expenses will cost $22,284,347.01 – 36%; and Salary and Wages will cost $21,192,197.44 – 35%.

Operating Expenses saw the biggest increase from 2023, having a variance of over $4 million.

“The largest difference is Operating Expenses. Most of those are not controllable because a lot of it is pension, social security – the biggest increase being insurances,” Manolio said.

The cost of those uncontrollable expenses totaled to $21,431,304.76. Of this, the highest expense is the group insurances – as Manolio noted – being over $11 million. This is a $2.5 million variance from the previous year.

This resulted in a 3.47% tax increase from last year’s budget, Manolio reiterated.

After the budget presentation concluded, all members of the council voted in favor to adopted the 2024 budget.