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CFO outlines cuts, fund-balance use as township committee weighs 2026 tax increase
Summary
At a Feb. 12, 2026 budget workshop, the township's chief financial officer reviewed departmental cuts, use of fund balance and capital shifts that reduce a projected 3¢ tax increase to roughly 2.7¢; committee members debated eliminating the board of adjustment, cutting library hours and other cost-saving options.
The township's chief financial officer presented the committee with a revised 2026 budget on Feb. 12, detailing departmental reductions, proposed use of fund balance and options to lower a projected tax increase.
The CFO said the township had introduced subaccounts this year to improve transparency and that reclassifying the school resource officer as a regular police officer "saved us a $150,000." The presentation listed targeted cuts across administration, engineering, public works and police and cited $420,000 in operating savings identified so far. The CFO also reported "we actually regenerated over $900,000 in fund balance" last year and proposed using $100,000 of fund balance as revenue to reduce upward pressure on taxes.
Why this matters: the budget as presented would, the CFO said, result in about a 2.7¢ tax increase. Committee members pressed for lower targets; one member suggested getting the increase down to 2¢, which would require additional cuts estimated in the range of tens of thousands of dollars depending on which line items are trimmed.
The CFO recommended several structural and timing adjustments to avoid an immediate tax spike. She proposed moving certain stormwater infrastructure work into capital (supported by a $50,000 grant), postponing $50,000 of a planned fire-truck appropriation and using available capital-improvement reserves (about $747,000 available) to soften the levy impact. On the fire-truck plan, the CFO described a cash-flow approach that would use available funds up front and repay the capital account over subsequent years rather than issuing immediate debt.
Committee members discussed longer-term options for savings. One member raised the possibility of exiting the state health benefits program and using an alternative plan or health insurance fund, but the CFO cautioned savings depend on labor-contract language and would require renegotiation when contracts expire in 2027. Members also noted a recent contract settlement for police increased costs by about $193,000, and several said continued labor-cost growth could make the township financially unsustainable without structural changes.
On structural changes, one committee member proposed eliminating the board of adjustment, noting surrounding towns often consolidate land-use boards and estimating savings on the order of $29,000–$30,000. Other members cautioned that combining boards could shift workload and possibly increase salary costs for clerical or planning support, and said the proposal requires further analysis.
No formal votes on the budget were taken at the workshop. The committee approved routine procedural motions to open and close public comment earlier in the meeting with unanimous recorded 'yes' responses, but members left substantive budget decisions for follow-up work and additional modeling of tax-impact options.
Next steps: staff will continue to refine line-item changes, model the tax-rate outcomes of different cut scenarios and return to the committee with options to reach the members' tax-rate targets and preserve critical capital projects.
