The 2024 budget shows the Township’s continued focus at delivering high--quality services Hamiltonians expect while doing it at a cost-efficient price. For the past three years, Hamilton has been able to hold the line on taxes during a high-inflation environment, but unfortunately, the 2024 budget does contain a tax increase. The increase for the 2024 budget is 3% over the 2023 budget.
Since the 2020 budget, inflation has increased by more than 19%. We all have experienced this when grocery shopping, buying a car, or through increased insurance costs. Like all of you, the Township government is subject to increased costs that have caused us to drill down even harder.
To put this in perspective, the last time inflation was this high over a 3-year period, Ronald Reagan was in his first term as President! This made this budget an extremely difficult one to manage, but we believe we have struck the right balance so we can continue to keep Hamilton America’s favorite hometown!
The 2024 budget increase is largely driven by non-discretionary items that towns across New Jersey are facing. The most significant increases for 2024 are:
- Garbage collection contract increased 50% (received only 1 bid)
- Recycling collection contract increased 75% (received only 1 bid)
- Health insurance costs increased 15%
- Property/Casualty insurance costs increased 15%
While the non-discretionary cost increases drove nearly all of the budget increase, we were still able to keep our services and add to them where necessary.
With a spike in property crime across NJ, the Township partnered with Hamilton Township School District to add a School Resource Officer (SRO) to each middle school and raise the police officer staffing by 3 to a total of 174 – the highest in over a decade!
Given the Hamilton animal shelter is over capacity, the 2024 budget adds an additional full-time animal attendant position to ensure the animals in our care receive humane treatment.
With the increase in heavy rain storms and flooding problems, the 2024 budget adds an additional laborer position to man the Township’s Jet-Vac truck, which keeps our stormwater system clean and properly maintained.
These increases should flatten out by next year with the belief that this is a one-time blip on our path to always providing high-quality services in the most cost-efficient manner.