Hillsborough introduces $43 million 2026 budget after $867,000 in mandated cost increases

Christian Bushell, Hillsborough Township’s chief financial officer and director of finance, introduced the township’s proposed 2026 budget, saying the plan totals about $43 million and that "there's about $867,000 in increases, which we had no control over."

The presentation framed the budget as the municipality’s annual "checkbook," with revenue and spending decisions that fund public safety, public works, recreation and senior programs. Bushell said mandatory increases—principally pension obligations to the state retirement systems and rising insurance and health-care costs—consumed the bulk of the allowable spending increase under New Jersey law.

Bushell listed the major drivers: the township’s obligations to the Public Employees' Retirement System (PERS) and the Police and Fire Retirement System (PFRS); a roughly $134,000 (about 13%) rise in Joint Insurance Fund assessments; and an approximate $450,000 increase in health insurance costs, which he said is close to a 12–13% jump over last year’s appropriation. "A lot of these ... we were clearly not immune to the rising costs in healthcare," Bushell said.

He explained that New Jersey municipal budgets are subject to statutory spending and levy caps. The state-designated cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) for the year was 2%, but Bushell said a recently approved local COLA ordinance increased the allowable limit to 3.5%, a change he described as "desperately needed" to reach the proposed budget this year.

To comply with caps, Bushell said staff confirmed with the state that some appropriations—such as shared-service court charges and portions of health insurance—could be moved from inside the cap to outside the cap; he emphasized these are still obligations the township must fund, but they are placed in a different accounting bucket.

On the levy-side, Bushell said the statutory 2% levy cap has enumerated exclusions (pension increases, health insurance, and declared emergency costs). Those exclusions helped produce a maximum allowable levy increase of about $2.4 million (roughly 8.4%); the township’s levy increase was about 8.3%.

Bushell summarized revenue sources as four buckets—fund balance, miscellaneous revenues, delinquent taxes and current-year taxes—and said current-year taxes account for roughly 72% of the municipal revenue stream. He also broke down major spending areas: public safety accounts for about 25% of the budget, public works about 10%, insurance about 12% and statutory obligations (pensions, FICA) about 13%.

Addressing who bears the tax burden, Bushell cited the township’s tax summary: residential property taxes make up about 87% of the tax base and commercial taxes about 5%. He noted Hillsborough’s rolling assessment process raised the municipality’s total assessed value from about $9.0 billion last year to about $9.5 billion this year—an increase of roughly $475 million—which reduced the tax-rate effect on homeowners. "With the rolling assessment ... we're looking at around a $56 impact for the year for the home," he said, offering an average home value of $628,000; he said without the increased assessed valuations the impact would have been around $162.

Bushell said the budget was being introduced that night and would be sent to the state for review; the state would send questions to finance staff and the auditor if needed. He said the township expects to respond and scheduled a public hearing and adoption for May 26.

The presentation did not record a formal vote on adoption during this meeting; Bushell described next steps as state review followed by the May 26 public hearing and adoption.