Munsey Park village trustees on Wednesday approved two local laws, one tacking on an additional fee to tickets from traffic violations and another that gives the board the ability to override the state’s mandated-tax cap in formulating its 2015-16 budget.
The first law would add a $30 “driver responsibility fee” to traffic fines, while the second would protect the village from being penalized for exceeding the tax cap.
“We don’t plan to use [the override],” Trustee Patrick Hance said, “but we would like to have the flexibility to if we need it.”
Both laws were first introduced during the board’s November meeting.
The board passed the laws just before introducing a new law that would amend the village’s structure in setting permit fees for construction projects.
Specific details of the new structure – which Village of Munsey Park Mayor Frank DeMento said the board has been working to amend for about two years – were not disclosed Wednesday, as only four of the five trustees had reviewed the proposal and it had not yet been reviewed by the village counsel or Building Inspector Anthony DiProperzio.
Trustee John Lippmann said the new fee structure would eliminate rare situations in which residents are charged high permit fees on minor building projects that take up a large square footage of a property.
But Deputy Mayor Sean Haggerty said he was concerned with how the village would make up for potential revenue losses resulting from a new structure, adding he would not want the village to have to raise taxes as a result.
“Overall, we want the fees to go down,” Haggerty said.
DeMento said the board would continue to make revisions to the proposal before voting on the local law in January.
DiProperzio suggested the board include a stipulation in the law that would enable trustees to amend the fee structure through a resolution, rather than a new local law.
In other developments:
• The board approved two resolutions to seek additional counsel in a potential refinancing of about $1.5 million in outstanding bonds and to appropriate up to $150,000 from the village’s general fund for legal fees, which the board would reimburse as part of any additional bonds taken out in the next two years.
Munsey Park has a $200,000 bond payment due in May. Its outstanding bond has a 4.1 percent interest rate.
Lippmann last month said the village would be able to extend its current bond for a maximum of two years at lower interest rates, which he said would reduce its debt and make it easier to approve an additional bond.
• Trustee Jennifer Noone, who oversees the installation and removal of the village’s street signs, said the village is preparing to remove some of the signage installed in October setting parking restrictions at sections of Abbey Road, Hunt Lane and Remington Road during pick-up and drop-off hours at Munsey Park Elementary School.
The village is not removing the restrictions, which prohibit cars from parking on both sides of the roadway in an effort to curtail traffic congestion, Noone said, but cutting down on signage deemed superfluous.
