Parsippany’s average tax bill to rise after council OKs contentious hike

PARSIPPANY — The township council voted to raise municipal property taxes on Tuesday, though only after a contentious debate over who was to blame - and how much the increase actually amounts to.

The council ultimately passed a resolution to adopt an $86.9 million budget by a 4-1 margin, with Justin Musella casting the lone "no" vote. They also unanimously passed an ordinance authorizing them to exceed the state-mandated 2% cap on annual property tax increases, a practice seen frequently in New Jersey municipalities.

Critics at the meeting and on social media said Mayor James Barberio and the council were being less than transparent about the municipal tax levy. The increase for fiscal year 2022 will be 14.56%, they said, pointing to a line in the budget identifying the rise in the "local purpose tax levy (only)" over the prior year. Below that, the budget lists a "local tax rate" increase line of 14.32%.

Barberio and the council, all Republicans, have emphasized that Parsippany homeowners will see their total tax bill − including county and school board levies the council doesn't control − go up by only 3.3%. They've blamed former mayor Michael Soriano, a Democrat, for this year's fiscal troubles.

Bernie Clarkin, an accountant who lives in town, challenged Barberio over the tax rate. Barberio defended how the increase was presented.

"I said the tax levy, meaning the amount of money needed to fund our government, was also increasing 14.56%," the mayor said at Tuesday's meeting. "I stated your taxes aren't going up that much. That's just the amount of difference between last year's and this year's budget."

In an interview Wednesday, Parsippany Chief Financial Officer Juan Uribe said the municipal portion of the tax bill would rise 14.3%, but said that amount represents only about a quarter of a homeowner's total bill. Including school and county taxes, the total increase this year amounts to 3.3%, or $315 per homeowner based on an average home valuation of $312,397.

"Your taxes are not going up 14%," Barberio said.

'No one calls me a liar'

Barberio said politics were behind criticisms of the budget, pointing to a statement published online by the Parsippany Democratic Committee. "They called me a liar," Barberio said. "No one calls me a liar. I don't care what party you are from."

Clarkin said he saw "very little decrease in spending in line items even though there was supposedly millions of dollars of waste by the prior administration." He cited a line item of $817,000 for legal fees, a 41% increase over last year's legal expenses of $578,000.

"If I take the last four years of legal expenses that averages out to $467,000 a year," Clarkin said, noting an expensive legal battle with former Police Capt. James Carifi was settled in 2021. "Something seems wrong there."

"Last year the legal fees came over budget, so that money has to be raised in 2022," Barberio said.

Clarkin and others also criticized the administration for renewing an old practice of appropriating funds from the township sewer utility − $1.5 million in this budget − to reduce the tax rate.

Soriano, who lost a re-election bid last year, enacted a 39% sewer-assessment increase during his term to replenish that surplus. At the time, he said Barberio had emptied the sewer utility surplus during a previous stint as mayor.

Council member Paul Carifi Jr., James Carifi's brother, noted that Clarkin was the father of Soriano's former chief of staff, Matt Clarkin. Carifi also said Soriano consistently hired staff at higher salaries than required, a practice over which he said the council had no oversight. Those and other unbudgeted expenditures, he said, added up during a period when COVID crippled local tax revenue.

"If you have a salary range of $40,000 to $80,000, and there were a lot of these employees, you bring them in at the starting pay or something very close to it," Carifi said. "You don't bring them in at top pay. And that money wasn't budgeted. You repeatedly do that, that's a lot of money over time. That's what did this. And now we're trying to dig out of that hole."

Barberio has repeatedly blamed the township's dire financial situation on Soriano, saying he spent down $22 million of the township's total utility surplus, including revenue from the water department and the Knoll Golf Club.

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"I had a tough budget here, I knew that when I ran," Barberio said Tuesday. "You continue to kick the can down the road, eventually someone has to dig their heels in and say 'enough is enough.' This is the mayor you got. Enough is enough."

“Mayor Barberio is raising taxes 14.3% in one year," Soriano said in an interview Wednesday. "That is the same amount taxes rose over the four total years of my administration, with consistent support from current council Republicans. Mayor Barberio’s budget is not fiscal conservatism. It’s an assault on the finances of every Parsippany taxpayer.”

Resident Bob Venezia, a frequent commenter at council meetings, blamed both mayors, saying transfers of surpluses from water and sewer utilities began in 2011 under Barberio and "over $9 million was transferred during this administration's prior terms. The transfers continued under Mayor Soriano."

The utility transfers stopped last year as the increased sewer fee introduced by Sorianohelped to replenish some of the surplus.

"Now, in 2022, utility transfers have started up again," Venezia said. "This practice ended badly once before, and I can't believe we're going to make the same mistake again."

Councilman Frank Neglia read a statement detailing what he saw as several instances of "mismanagement" by Soriano. He ended with a promise.

"We are all left with cleaning up the financial mess that Mayor Soriano left us," Neglia said. "This council, this mayor are all responsible for it now. Moving forward, you won't hear this mayor, or this council, blame the past mayor for this budget like the former mayor did all years in office. Moving forward, we own it."

Mussella voted against the budget without comment.

William Westhoven is a local reporter for DailyRecord.com. For unlimited access to the most important news from your local community, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

Email: wwesthoven@dailyrecord.com 

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This article originally appeared on Morristown Daily Record: Parsippany NJ 2022 tax bill to rise, council approves hike