New Hanover Township
Burlington County, New Jersey
Welcome to the New Hanover Happenings
Keeping New Hanover a great place to live is and has been the goal of this administration from day one.
The past few years has been a very challenging economy to say the least. We have all seen skyrocketing prices for just about everything we rely on in our everyday lives from food, gasoline, transportation and housing.
Some examples of our substantial increases have been to maintain and ensure the safety of our Volunteer Fire Personnel. We have upgraded safety features on the trucks, replaced required equipment and purchased personal protection equipment. We have also increased Police salaries to stay competitive with our surrounding towns in order to retain our officers. We saw an unprecedented increase of 25% in our General Liability/Health Insurance along with many other increases.
We have held the line as long as we could with a 9.5 cents Local Purpose Tax Rate from 2017 to 2023, and have not asked the residents of New Hanover for a tax increase to support the services the Township provides to everyone. We were able to do this despite State Aid only increasing $6,177 over this very same time span. To offset the needed Local Purpose Tax Rate revenue (services), the average house will increase approximately $578 for the 2024-2025 tax year. Because we’ve held the taxes to a minimum for so many years, the State allows us a one-time increase of this percentage. Moving forward, we are allowed a maximum of a 2% tax increase per year, which equates to $14 per year. Please keep in mind that our municipal tax is separate from our school, County and State taxes; and we are not part of that decision-making process.
Currently our town is debt free and our goal is to continue to ensure our financial stability and maintain the quality of services our township has been accustomed to over the years. We will monitor services in the upcoming years, continue to aggressively seek grants and look for alternative revenues and ways to reduce costs.
If there are any questions or comments, please come in during business hours or call 609-758-2172 or email at clerk@newhanovertwp.com. The next Township Committee meeting will be held on June 11, 2024 at 6:00 pm.
Thank you and sincerely,
Paul D. Peterla,
Mayor