For Release January 18, 2011
Contact Frank Baraff 914-469-3775

 Mayor Hawkins presents FY2011 budget to the Orange City Council, January 18th, 2011Spending reduced by $3.2 million compared to FY2010

Mayor Eldridge Hawkins, Jr. will present his fiscal Year 2011 budget to the Orange City Council at its regular meeting on Tuesday, January 18th at 7:00pm at City Hall.

Highlights:

Reduced spending: Spending on operations down by approximately $3.2 million compared to last year but still requires a tax increase to make up for reduced revenues and higher mandated costs.

$6.4 million dollar budget gap: Governor Christie’s $3 million dollar cut in State Aid and Urban Enterprise Zone (UEZ) funds contributed to a $6.4 million dollar gap.  Without layoffs or employee contract give-backs, Orange would face a 21% tax increase.

Cutting Back:
Salaries, benefits, personnel-related items and other mandated costs are 95% of spending. The only way to avoid a huge tax increase is to reduce the cost of personnel. And since police, fire and public works are 83% of Orange’s personnel costs, those departments must suffer the largest reductions.

Reducing personnel costs does not have to mean layoffs:
Give-backs can include salary and benefit reductions as well as changes in overtime pay and other work rules.  Employees were asked to make up the $3 million loss of state funding. This would have resulted in a 10% tax increase instead of 21%

Layoffs have been implemented but negotiations to roll them back continue:
Since Friday, January 14th, the fire unions have gotten closer to an agreement. If this comes to fruition, fire layoffs and service reductions will be rolled back. Through negotiations, other unions still can roll back their layoffs.

With layoffs, the municipal property tax levy will increase by 14.1%: This translates into an increase from last year of $701 for the average tax bill in Orange. The amount raised from property taxes in FY2011 is $37.4 million compared to $32.8 million in FY2010 budget. However, the city is actually budgeted to spend $3.2 million less to operate this year compared to last year. The FY2010 budget totaled $57.3 million. The FY2011 budget is $54.1 million. This year’s budget spends $3.2 million less than last year.

Consequences of Layoffs:

Public Safety: Police staff reductions are designed to maintain the present level of police protection. Supervisors were demoted to prevent the layoff of more officers and to ensure that there will be police on the streets.  Under this budget, there will be just as many police patrolling our neighborhoods as there were under the FY2010 budget. Residents will experience the reduction in police staffing as longer times to process insurance reports and other paperwork and slower responses to non-emergency requests.

If the agreement with the fire unions comes to fruition, staffing of the Fire Department will continue at present levels. If not, the Department will take one engine out of service while continuing to rely on the mutual aid agreements we have with our neighboring towns.

Planning and Economic Development: Code enforcement will operate with two inspectors. They will be supplemented by a housing inspection contract to ensure quality rental housing while producing an estimated $125,000 to $200,000 each year in added revenue.  Rent control will be enforced by one part-time employee. Hours are reduced in the building and construction office.

Community Services: The older adults division will become more of a referral resource than direct service provider. The cultural affairs division will offset the cost of concerts, festivals and special events with private sponsorships and donations.

 Public Works & Engineering: Street sweeping will be reduced to every other week. Cleaning of abandoned privately owned lots will be outsourced and directly billed the owners. Some snow plowing outsourced. Local service agreements with East Orange provide salt, mechanic services and the washing of our trucks.

Budget summary and Mayor Hawkins’ full budget message are attached.