The Finance Department is responsible for all financial transactions relating to the revenues and disbursements of the Borough. This department keeps a full account of all cash receipts and disbursements of the Borough, has custody of all investments and invested funds of the Borough in a fiduciary capacity, keeps all monies not required for current operations safely invested or deposited in interest bearing accounts, handles the payroll for municipal employees, processes requisitions and purchase orders for payment and collects current and delinquent taxes. The CFO oversees the financial operations of the Borough.

The Tax Collection Office is responsible for billing and collecting property taxes on properties located in the Borough of Leonia. Your tax bill includes revenues collected by the Borough on behalf of the municipality, county, and school district. The Billing and collection of real estate property taxes is governed by state law and applies to every municipality in New Jersey.

In accordance with NJSA 54:4-64 failure to receive a tax bill does not exempt a taxpayer from paying taxes or delinquent interest of taxes. It is the property owner's responsibility to ascertain from the proper official (tax collector) the amount due. Please contact the tax office immediately if you have lost your bill, are have difficulty paying online or did not receive an email notification (if applicable) to obtain the amount due.

MARCH 13, 2024 BUDGET UPDATE

In a previous update, I let you know how serious our budget challenge is this year.  We’re looking at the loss of $500,000 in federal funding, NJ mandated increases to pension and benefit costs, a substantial increase in debt service costs, inflationary headwinds and county mandated costs to prepare for a revaluation in 2025.  Many of our large cost items are baked into the budget in advance and are hard costs.  For example, our Police Department pension contributions (what we pay for our current police department members pensions) is about $1 million annually.  As we add officers we increase our required pension contribution load and this is in addition to officer salaries and insurance benefits.  Another substantial cost is what we pay for sanitary sewer flow processing.  This is another $1 million.  These large ticket required expenditures add up quickly.  

The Finance Committee under the capable leadership of Council President Christoph Hesterbrink has been hard at work with our Borough Administrator Marisa Mesropian, CFO Issa Abbasi and all of our department heads to achieve the best budget possible – an optimum balance of managing costs, revenues and tax load.  On Monday, March 25th at 7:30 pm, we will host a Town Hall session in the Senior Center to present our town’s municipal budget proposal.  If you’re interested in the budget, please consider attending.  

Here’s what the budget situation looks like right now.  A little context will help set the stage… Last year, we had a 5.5% increase in the municipal budget despite having that additional $500,000 in federal funding.  In 2024, we are putting forward an operating budget that has a 2.98% municipal tax increase which is less than this year’s inflation rate of 3.4% despite losing $500,00 in federal funds, having to pay more for pensions and benefits, more in debt load, more for the 2025 revaluation etc.    

I believe we have to run the municipality like a business and treat you, the taxpayer, like an investor. That’s what we’re doing.   We took a fine tooth comb to every single budget line item across all municipal departments and demanded sensible but meaningful cuts which will trim our expenditures and force greater efficiencies. 

Every department’s spending is reduced including the DPW, Rec, Police Department, Library, etc.  All department heads are being asked to do more with less.  Cutting budgets is hard, uncomfortable and involves sacrifices.  But it is the only way to manage what otherwise would have been a far larger tax increase.  

As investors in Leonia, you deserve no less than this level of budget scrutiny and stewardship.   Striking the right balance between services, taxes and greater efficiency is both art and science.  I have complete confidence in the ability of all of our department heads to operate their services more efficiently and to rise to the challenge that this year represents.  

Planning ahead, I want to make one last point as it relates not to this year’s budget but our next municipal budget in 2025.   It will be impossible to continue to cut funding at the rate which we have proposed this year for next year as well.  Unless we solve the systemic issue of more revenues with greater revenue diversification, we will start to chip away at what makes Leonia special and this is not in any of our best interests.  While we are making some fairly substantial cuts this year, I’m telling you now we won’t be able to do the same next go around without sacrificing key aspects of our safety/security and quality of life.  We must reduce the 93% taxpayer burden currently on homeowners by inviting in more commercial and retail elements, and I’m pleased our neighbors on the Mayor’s Advisory Committee on Revitalization are focused on this substantial challenge right now.  Our next Town Hall after the Budget Town Hall on March 25th will, not surprisingly, be about redevelopment and revitalization scheduled for late April/May.