Summit was another town we needed to submit an OPRA in order to get the budget. While they had a presentation and brochure on the website, there was important information missing from the document that exists on the data sheet. We got the budget yesterday, so let’s dive into a story that shouldn’t look too unfamiliar if you’ve been keeping up with the series.
’26 general appropriations comes in at ~$63.4M up by about ~$3.66M from the ’25 adopted.
So, pretty much the same thing we’ve been seeing in other towns – rising costs on top of a baseline that’s already floating up.
To cover this, the municipal and library tax bumps to ~$36.75M (~$33.09M and ~$3.66M respectively), and this is before the school add.
Municipal Purpose Tax Levy
Minimum Library Tax
Reserve for Uncollected Taxes
One number that might stand out is that $5M Reserve – this is more of a fixed number than the levy and it’s bigger in Summit than some of the other towns we’ve looked at.
Moving to budget structure…
Total Operating Budget
Within CAPS
Excluded from CAPS
Reserve for Uncollected Taxes
Municipal Purpose Tax Levy
Surplus Anticipated
The excluded-from-CAPS spending is hefty and includes debt service, school-related pass-throughs and other items sitting outside the CAP controls.
The 2024 ACFR data reinforces the fact that these are baked in.
Police salaries alone came in at approximately $6.17M paid/charged.
Police Salaries
2024 ACFR paid/charged
Fire Salaries
2024 ACFR paid/charged
Group Health
2024 ACFR paid/charged
It’s pretty much the same thing we’ve been seeing every where else but the scale in Summit is next level.
Moving to revenue, there isn’t much there to be excited about.
Surplus rises slightly from $8.4M to $8.5M, local revenues decline from $5.26M to $5.04M and state aid rises slightly from about $3.66M to about $3.71M.
There are also multiple grant and special revenue lines (NJDOT projects, public safety grants and other one-time sources) but these aren’t stable long term streams that are going to fundamentally solve anything.
The bottom line is pretty straightforward.
The budget is growing and it’s structurally built to keep growing.
And here is the three year picture …
| Category | 2024 ACFR actual / base | 2025 adopted | 2026 introduced |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3-Year Flow | |||
| Within CAPS | — | $36,961,294 | $38,238,094 |
| Excluded from CAPS | — | $17,807,921 | $20,189,139 |
| Reserve for Uncollected Taxes | — | $5,000,015 | $5,000,003 |
| Municipal Purpose Tax Levy | — | $31,877,102 | $33,094,576 |
| Minimum Library Tax | $3,049,686 | $3,379,453 | $3,655,486 |
| Surplus Anticipated | — | $8,400,000 | $8,500,000 |
| Local Revenues | — | $5,259,666 | $5,036,625 |
| State Aid | — | $3,659,935 | $3,706,172 |
| Total General Appropriations | $57,100,000 | $59,769,230 | $63,427,236 |
| Indicators | |||
| Police salaries | $6,166,125.59 | $6,121,765 | $6,347,226 |
| Police other expenses | $262,357.97 | $506,100 | $566,500 |
| Fire salaries | $3,926,118.01 | $3,913,576 | $4,062,348 |
| Fire other expenses | $414,538.89 | $493,200 | $488,400 |
| Employee group health insurance | $2,642,580 | $2,779,153 | $3,224,306 |
| General liability | $729,509 | $755,042 | $847,201 |
| Workers compensation | $643,774 | $602,130 | $623,475 |
| Municipal Court other expenses | $273,523.19 | $342,771 | $361,711 |
| Dispatch Services – Joint Meeting | $1,216,855 | $1,379,192 | $1,485,927 |
| Reserve for Tax Appeals | $100,000 | $100,000 | $200,000 |
| Health Insurance (Outside CAP) | — | $312,667 | $675,694 |
See Our Full Municipal Budget Analysis
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