Monmouth City Administrator Lew Steinbrecher has presented the proposed total budget of $22,176,633 for fiscal year 2021-2022 to City Council. Steinbrecher considered the budget a status-quo as there was no increase or decrease in personnel in all departments and by maintaining municipal services at their current levels:
“The two biggest funds within that are the General Fund and the Water and Sewer Fund, which comprise about 80% of the total city budget. Within the General Fund itself, public safety continues to be a high priority. The allocation of funds to the police department and fire department constitute close to 70% of the total General Fund while municipal operations, which includes the public works department, represents 19% of the General Fund. Then if you look into the actual fire department and police department, you will see that labor costs, which include salaries, pension, and health insurance, represent about 94% of the cost. There’s a lot of service associated with that because of employees. In the police department, the labor costs represent 96% of the total police department budget. I would classify it as a status-quo. There is no increase or decrease in the municipal services that are being provided with next year’s budget.”
Administrator Steinbrecher states funds have been allocated to replace the water main on West Harlem Avenue in preparation for reconstruction of the West Harlem roadway in 2022. The entire budget proposal can be viewed on the city’s website, cityofmonmouth.com.
