By Ron Leir
NORTH ARLINGTON –
This borough’s shaky ship of state has arrived at an official budget for 2011 but not without leaving a war of words in its wake.
The Republican majority took credit for cobbling together a budget that falls just below the state-mandated 2% spending cap but the Democrats griped that they should have gone further to spare all taxpayers pain.
Borough Council President Richard Hughes said the $20.7 million budget – and a municipal tax levy of nearly $14.5 million – that was adopted by a 4-to-2 vote on Aug. 4 displaces no public employees and leaves intact all municipal services.
And, Hughes said, it will chop about $50 off the tax bill of the “average” homeowner whose property is assessed at $319,000 under the newly completed revaluation.
To read the full story, see this week’s issue of The Observer.
