March 23rd Meeting Summary

On Monday, March 23rd we had a meeting. Here is a brief summary of the highlights.

The Council introduced our 2026 budget. In an effort to reduce the tax increase from 5.8% to 2.8%, the Administration made a few changes since the budget presentations:

• The amount of fund balance used in this year's budget increased, from $4 million to $4.135 million.

• $200K of health care cost expenses were moved out of our current fund and into our water and sewer utility, to more closely match the fact that employees in that utility have health insurance.

• A new hire in Public Works was deferred until 2027.

As part of the discussion prior to introduction, I raised concerns with increasing fund balance to smooth over tax increases. The CFO and Township Manager agreed that we need to increase revenue in 2026 to help ensure that we don't create a cycle where we over rely on fund balance to balance our budget. I asked the administration to summarize how they plan to increase revenue before we vote on this budget at our April 20th meeting.

Now is the time to send any feedback to the Council on the budget. You can see a copy of the budget here: https://www.veronanj.org/media/Council%20Docs/2026/2026_Municipal_Budget_Template%20INTRODUCTION.pdf

Comments can be sent to all five members of the Council here: https://www.veronanj.org/councilcontactform

In other maters, we re-introduced our pest control ordinance due to additional changes at the request of the Deputy Mayor. This new ordinance will be voted on at our next meeting on Monday, April 6th.

Under resolutions - we approved our 2025 LOSAP allocations for our volunteer fire department. We also approved two emergency contracts for work that happened during the recent snow storms. Contracts were also approved with All American Sewer, ALS Environmental, Draeger, and Nature's Choice.

Under new business we discussed three ordinance changes. The first was banning "open burning" - which happens infrequently but does happen. We are crafting the ordinance in a way so that it does not ban anyone's fire pit but does address the issue of people burning leaves or garbage on their properties. The second ordinance is to establish a salary range for a new part time position. The third is to make some existing ordinance changes to ensure our our code on our Planning Board and Board of Adjustment is aligned with the state codes on the order by which Alternates to these boards vote.

If you have comments on this or any matter, please send your feedback on this or any matter but emailing the entire Council here: https://www.veronanj.org/councilcontactform.