Mayor ChoiLankey's 2014 Budget & the 2% Property Tax Cap!

Well, looks like the myth of the 2% Hard Cap on the Property Tax Levy has hit us here in Downtown Edison. You know, the 2% Hard Cap Exclusions and Banked Caps that allow increases greater than 2%.

Last I looked, there were a dozen or so exclusions to the 2% Hard Cap. This would be for things like health & pension costs, capital expenditures and emergencies, to name a few. These are excluded from the Cap calculation and the increase passed directly on to the taxpayers.

The Banked Cap is also another way to get around the 2% Hard Cap. Any increase under 2% can be 'Banked' and carried forward for three years and used to go above the 2% Cap in a later year.

Looks like Mayor ChoiLankey's 2014 Budget includes mucho exclusions to the 2% Cap and why the Muni Tax Rate is $1.208 - up 9.2 cents or 8.3% over last year. You can see their Tax Levy calculation in the budget on page 7 - sheet 3b-1:

Here's what it looks like:

Anyhoo, hard to see the justifications for such a huge increase in this budget. Let's hope someone is looking at this budget - maybe it's me but some of the detail schedules don't even agree to the summary pages.