Some tax relief is on the way for Lyndhurst residents, at least on the municipal side of things.
The Lyndhurst Board of Commissioners voted last week to adopt the township’s 2019 budget — and in doing so, undertook a plan that will see a 2% decrease in the municipal portion of residents’ tax bills. This is the second time in three years the municipal budget decreased over the prior year.
While the decrease is only for the municipal portion of taxation, it “may be absorbed or erased by an increase in the school or county tax rate, which is not part of the township’s budget,” Commissioner of Finance John Montillo said in a letter to residents, fellow commissioners and to Mayor Robert Giangeruso.
In 2019, “we will have had among the most significant reductions in municipal taxes over the past few years and our average residential tax bill will continue to be lower than residential taxes in neighboring towns and among the lowest in Bergen County,” Montillo said.
Lyndhurst is one of about a dozen New Jersey municipalities of the 565 in total with a municipal tax decrease in 2019. This all occurs as the township is building a new school and is undertaking a massive renovation to the Stuyvesant Avenue NJ Transit train station.
“The new junior high school is well under construction and the building is on schedule and on budget,” Montillo said. “As previously reported, no financial impact has been felt from the new school because we are coming to the end of financing the EnCap project debacle which caused Lyndhurst to incur over $20 million of short-term debt.”
Lyndhurst’s municipal tax levy represents 39% of the overall residential tax. The school tax is 49%, the county 11% and the library 1%.
Giangeruso, meanwhile, is elated to see another municipal tax drop.
“There are so many great things going on in Lyndhurst right now,” Giangeruso said. “Whether it’s the building of a new, state-of-the-art junior high school or the renovations being done to the NJ Transit train station and so much else. Despite all these good things that are happening, I am very proud of my administration. We’ve been able to adopt a budget — a very responsible budget — that offers tax relief to the people of Lyndhurst.
“We’re also going to be undertaking a major infrastructure program very soon. In doing all of this — and more — we’ve been able to reduce taxes by 2%. I couldn’t be happier.”
It is not yet clear whether there will be decreases in the Bergen County of school portion of taxes.
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Kevin A. Canessa Jr. is the editor of and broadcaster at The Observer, a place where he has served on and off since 2006. He is responsible for the editorial content of the newspaper and website, the production of the e-Newspaper, writing several stories per week (including the weekly editorial), conducting live broadcasts on Facebook Live, including a weekly recap of the news — and much more behind the scenes. Between 2006 and 2008, he introduced the newspaper to its first-ever blog — which included podcasts, audio and video. Originally from Jersey City, Kevin lived in Kearny until 2004, lived in Port St. Lucie. Florida, for four years until February 2016 and in March of that year, he moved back to West Hudson to return to The Observer full time. Click Here to send Kevin an email.