Pre-Meeting Edits to the 2026 Berkeley Heights Municipal Budget and Litigation Added to 4/7 Agenda

Our initial article on the Berkeley Heights budget was based on the original document published by the Township and, unsurprisingly, things changed prior to the meeting.

Here is a breakdown of what was different between the two ’26 Budget documents.

Total general appropriations: +$20,000 / +0.06%
Within-CAPS spending: -$72,700 / -0.33%
Outside-CAPS spending: +$32,700 / +0.27%
Reserve for uncollected taxes: +$60,000 / +6.98%
Tax collection assumption: -0.07 percentage points / -0.07%
Surplus anticipated: -$440,000 / -8.98%
Local revenues: -$1,824,000 / -50.96%
Amount to be raised for municipal purposes: -$14,636.33 / -0.09%
Under appropriations cap: -$9,348.21 / -95.71%
Under 2% levy cap: -$547,622.84 / -29.63%
Police other expenses: -$10,000 / -3.63%
Capital Improvement Fund: -$170,000 / -17.00%

And here is how our three year from ACFR Baseline flow changed:

None of this really changes the core spending picture and the line item adjustments are small.

The bigger story is the overall structure – less surplus higher reserves for uncollected taxes and tighter cap margins – which all amounts to less flexibility.

Additionally, potential litigation showed up on the amended agenda with Free Acres underneath it as a separate bullet – this was also on the same evening the Township moved forward with what is now being referred to as the CMS Sports Park (fka the Turf Field, Natural Field, Sports Complex, Project)

This is the second time we’ve noticed in ’26 that an item connected to litigation was added to the Agenda just before the meeting. We emailed the township requesting more detail on the item.

Source Documents (zip)

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