Contentious public comment period marked by dissatisfaction among residents

ANDOVER — The Andover Township committee adopted the 2012 municipal budget at Tuesday’s committee meeting by a vote of 3-2.

Before the vote took place a public hearing was held where Andover citizens spoke their final piece.

“You said in your campaign you wanted to help lower taxes," said resident Diane Gillespie to mayor Mike Lensak. "There should be a compromise with the health benefits you receive. You have to be part of the sacrifice with all the employees in town.”

“I think the auditor is off the wall,” said resident John Carafello. “Things are getting terrible, they are getting worse. I want you to really look hard at this one and keep it at zero.”

As reported in May, even with a zero-increase budget there would still be an increase to Andover taxpayers of $15 per average house assessed at $247,000 due to a decrease in township revenues. The budget as passed, at approximately $7.5 million, reflects a $54 increase on the average assessed house in Andover - a 54 percent increase over last year.

Richard Hamler thanked the committee for their hard work and acknowledged the arduous task of balancing the budget, but expressed his concern, saying, “You are asking us to sacrifice our money, but you are not giving up anything. How could you raise taxes when 16 percent of the town cannot pay their taxes?”

There was some confusion over the exact number of township residents who are late or delinquent on their taxes and it was decided that an exact number would be made available at the next committee meeting.

With overall public opinion being one of dissent and discouragement towards any increase in the budget, most committee members meekly justified the increases during the discussion, except for Bob Smith, who began by saying he didn’t want to bore people by repeating his mantra of standing for no increases. “I beg you please, zero is where it should be,” he said to his fellow committee members.

One of the main reasons residents are seeing an increase is that committee members don't want to risk depleting the township’s surplus fund.

At the May 11 committee meeting, township auditor Ray Sarinelli suggested the fund balance be 5 to 10 percent of the total budget - a number recommended by financial experts at Standard & Poor's.

Committee member and budget chairman Tom Walsh said that he cannot afford a tax increase, but sees no other way. "I put my heart and soul into this, but I don’t want to take more from the surplus," said Walsh. " "Next year will be tougher. I agree with Bob and I disagree, because we can’t keep taking and taking."

It was pointed out that $65 million in state cuts to municipalities played a big role in the budget process.

Committee member Gail Phoebus, who was not present at the meeting but participated via telephone conference, continues to place blame squarely on the Andover Board of Education.

“We are in a terrible economic situation as the tax base deteriorates, and the Board of Education doesn’t care about taxpayers," said Phoebus. "Trenton feels that Andover Township doesn’t handle their school money properly which hurts us overall because they cut back.”

Committee member Phil Boyce believes the increase is unavoidable in order to sustain town services. “We have cut services as well as any other town, we can’t cut anymore," said Boyce. "If you sacrifice by paying slightly higher taxes, so do we."

Committee members reminded the public that denying new businesses to open in Andover has not helped the current budget situation.

“People have said in the past 'I would rather have higher taxes than see them come in.' Well now we have higher taxes,” said mayor Lensak. “I am here for the duration. I want services and everything that goes along with it. I am sorry if $54 is too much, but I think the budget is responsible, and we cannot clip into our reserves.”

In the end, committee members Phoebus and Smith voted no but were overruled by Boyce, Walsh and Lensak.