The 2025 budget for the Borough of Manville was introduced at the Council Meeting held on Monday, April 28th.

The Budget Presentation calls for an increase of $735,161.18 to the budget.

The assessed value of Manville is now $1,466,862,700, an increase of 8.28% from 2024. The average assessed home is now worth $392,103, an increase of 8.72% from 2024.

The property tax "rate" has decreased to 0.699 from 2024's value of 0.743. This does not mean that residents will experience a tax decrease on their property tax bills. There are many factors that are considered to determine if your property taxes will increase, stay the same, or decrease. Such as: how did a property's assessment change for 2025, and what the County tax rate will be.

The school district tax levy has not changed. In fact, the school district has not asked Manville for any tax levy increases since 2018, which means that the percentage of property taxes going to the schools has declined over the years.

The property tax summary information shows there will be an annual increase of approximately $64.59 on the average assessed home in Manville. Again, this only accounts for the municipal side of the property tax bill. It is not known at the time of this article what Somerset County's tax rate will be.

A year-over-year comparison of the amounts to be raised by taxes show for the year 2025, Manville needs to raise $10,260,623. In 2024, they needed to raise $10,060,337. This is an increase of $200,286.

Residents will recall that during the 2023 Mayoral Election, Mayor Richard Onderko "promised" no municipal tax increases for 5 years following the sale of Manville's sewer utility. This appears to not be the case, as Manville's taxes continue to increase year over year.

During the public portion, a resident pushed on Mayor Onderko regarding properties, specifically the Rustic Mall, that appear to be under-assessed, and these possible underassessments might have covered the deficit in the budget resulting in no municipal tax increase for residents.

The resident stated: "That would've covered your deficit in this budget so that there would be no tax increase for the residents, that you promised. That you promised."

"Well, (resident's name), things change. Our expenses went through the roof," Responded Mayor Richard Onderko.

In other notable information, the Municipal Bond for the purchasing of the fire truck has still not been completed. The fire truck cost the Borough $1,825,000. It appears this funding will be "replaced" into capital once the bond is acquired.

The public hearing and adoption of the budget is tentatively scheduled for Tuesday, May 27th. This is when the public can ask questions specific to the budget prior to its formal adoption.

Further, it was noted that the State of NJ still needs to review Manville's budget. Despite no longer being under DCA control for receiving Transitional Aid in prior years, one requirement remains where the State must review the municipal budget prior to it being adopted by the Borough.

Once Somerset County finalizes their tax rate, residents can get a better understanding of how much their property taxes will increase this year. The municipal side had an increase, the school levy stayed flat, and it's unknown at this time what will happen with the County part of the tax bill. (County tax, Open Space, and County Library).

A copy of the Budget Presentation can be found here.
Presentation Credit: Borough of Manville