Summit’s Council is set to introduce its budget on Tuesday (April 7) and unlike Berkeley Heights which put its full document in full view, it’s taking the BHPSNJ approach and giving the least amount of information necessary as of this article’s publication.
But, there is still a lot we can look at to be prepared for the Budget portion of the meeting. For this article we are going to take the little information available for 2026, pull in the 2025 Adopted Budget and the 2024 ACFR Data. The ACFR is the most solid of the three as it is a record of what actually happened, The 2025 budget is little more than a hope and this years ACFR isn’t due until August as NJ, in its infinite wisdom, decided to extend the deadline until after most budgets have been voted on.
This lack of detail carries even more weight when you consider that Summit had the least efficient budget on our recent 7-Municipality analysis of the 2024 ACFR.
Ok onto the numbers,..The 2026 municipal budget totals $63,427,236, – about $3.7M higher than the 2025 Adopted Budget. The 2026 budget increases the amount to be raised from taxes by ~$3M, bringing the total tax levy to ~$42.5 million.
So while the City found about $3M in savings it still needs another $3.6M to cover costs.
The ’26 Budget increases within-CAPS spending to ~$39M, while excluded municipal spending (debt service/capital improvements) drops to ~10M and school-related costs bump up to $5.74M.
Where the Budget Is Changing
When we move to our most solid baseline – the 2024 ACFR- we see expensive concentrations..
Police Salaries at about $6M
Fire Salaries nearing $4M
Police and Fire Pension at $3.36M
Employee Health Insurance at 2.64 and as we’ve been writing -that is not going to get better any time soon.
Then there’s utilities, sanitation, recycling, disposal, along with a debt service tacking on another multi-million dollar layer in bond principal and interest at both the municipal and school level.
Where the Money Actually Goes
So the lack of detail prior to the meeting raises the same red flag as the BHPSNJ Budget- a larger price tag on top of a structure that’s already tied up in police salaries and pensions, insurance, utilities, sanitation, and debt… a transparency problem – with a lot of zero’s attached to it .
Read More : The 21st District Face-Off: How Seven Towns Stack Up on Per-Household Spending
|
Related Articles
John’s Notes on the Rest of the 04/07 Berkeley Heights Town Council Meeting
Cranford Budget Growth: Rising Costs and the Search for Detailed Data
