Cranbury Township taxpayers will not face an increase in municipal taxes as the tax rate is expected to remain flat for 2025.
The proposed municipal tax rate will remain flat at 34.1 cents per $100 of assessed valuation. The owner of a home assessed at $606,000 would pay $2,066 in municipal taxes.
The tax rate remains flat under a $14.1 million budget unanimously introduced by the Township Committee on Feb. 10, which would fund municipal operations in 2025.
A public hearing on the budget is scheduled to take place on March 10.
In a budget meeting on Jan. 28, Township Administrator Denise Marabello said the township’s surplus continues to be very healthy.
“We are fortunate in that we have been able to replenish what we used last year,” she said. “We are able to have a zero-tax increase again this year. We will use $2.2 million worth of surplus, which is fine because we replenished over $2 million in 2024 in surplus.”
Municipal taxes are one item on a property owner’s total tax bill, which also includes the Cranbury School District taxes and Middlesex County taxes.
The amount an individual pays in taxes is determined by the assessed value of his or her home and/or property, and the tax rate that is set by each taxing entity.
Property taxes are the main source of revenue supporting the budget. The amount expected to be raised by property taxes for 2025 is $7.66 million.
On the revenue side, the budget revenues include $2.2 million in the use of surplus; $1.8 million in sewer service fees; $526,694 from the reserve for development fee; $472,588 in state aid; $354,750 from the hotel tax; and $183,240 from the municipal court.
On the appropriations side of the budget, the budget will fund appropriations that include $1.75 million on municipal debt service.
“Keep in mind three quarters of our budget is not even within our control,” Marabello said. “Things like increase in pension, increase in health insurance, our shared services contracts which we have already entered into, police salaries, they are all non-negotiable.
“Our budget doesn’t increase much each year.”
Additional appropriations include $2.5 million on police salary and wages; $1.24 million on medical insurance, $484,000 on sewer (includes salary and wages), $333,614 on roads (includes salary and wages), $150,500 on legal services, $85,850 on engineering, and $28,315 for the senior center.
“Looking down the road, our assessed value continues to go up,” Marabello noted. “It will level off by 2030 maybe because everything will be pretty much built out at that point, and we won’t have any additional ratables coming on.
“We also will probably be doing a revaluation over the next couple of years, not for the entire town, but for the warehouse area.”
