> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://blog.johnmangini.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Warren introduced a $27,058,362.93 budget, and the average home pays $64 more - URL: https://blog.johnmangini.com/municipal-budget-introduced-2026/ - Published: 2026-04-17T13:00:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-08-20T17:53:34.000Z - Description: Resolution 2026-108 passed 5-0 on April 16. Total appropriations are $27,058,362.93, up 6.14 percent, with $16,545,270.77 raised by taxes. The public hearing is May 14. - Author: John Mangini - Tags: Warren 07059, Township, budget, taxes, township committee The short answer The Warren Township Committee introduced the Calendar Year 2026 Municipal Budget on April 16, 2026 by unanimous 5-0 recorded vote, as Resolution 2026-108\. Total appropriations are $27,058,362.93, with $16,545,270.77 to be raised by taxes and a separate Utility Budget of $5,450,537.00\. Township Administrator Mark Krane reported the budget is 6.14 percent above the 2025 budget and adds $64 to the average assessed home, which this year is $1,021,852.00\. Krane said 85 percent of the increase is attributable to health insurance, the police department budget, and property and casualty insurance. The public hearing is set for May 14, 2026 at 7:00 p.m. at 44 Mountain Boulevard. $27,058,362.93 Total 2026 appropriations $16,545,270.77 To be raised by taxes $5,450,537.00 2026 Utility Budget $64 Increase, average assessed home ## The vote Resolution 2026-108 was moved by Committeeman Daniel McCarey and seconded by Deputy Mayor Vanessa Kian. The recorded roll call was 5-0\. Present and voting yes were McCarey, Committeeman Lance Blick, Committeeman Daniel Croson, Deputy Mayor Kian and Mayor Shaun Fine. There were no abstentions and no absences on the vote. Introduction is not adoption. What happened on April 16 is that the Committee put a number on the table and started the statutory clock. The budget was set to be posted for viewing on April 21 and published on the township website and in the public notices section of mycentraljersey.com on April 22, with the hearing to follow on May 14. ## Where the increase comes from Krane reported the proposed budget is 6.14 percent over the 2025 budget. He attributed 85 percent of that increase to three lines: health insurance, the police department budget, and property and casualty insurance. That is a useful disclosure, because it separates the part of the budget the Committee actively decides from the part that arrives as a bill. Insurance costs are set outside the municipal building. If most of the increase sits in insurance and public safety personnel, then the discretionary portion of the 6.14 percent is small, and arguing about it at the May 14 hearing will not move much money. The Committee also introduced Ordinance 26-15, the CY2026 Cap Bank ordinance, by the same 5-0 vote, with its hearing also set for May 14\. A cap bank ordinance lets a New Jersey municipality reserve unused appropriation capacity under the statutory levy cap for use in later years. Introducing one alongside the budget is routine practice, not a signal that the reserved capacity gets spent. ## The $64, and what it is measured against The $64 figure is the increase on the average assessed home. The average assessed home in Warren this year is $1,021,852.00. Read those two numbers together. The dollar impact is stated against a moving assessment base, not against your specific house. If your assessment moved more than the township average, your municipal share moved more than $64\. If it moved less, your share moved less. The average is an average. ## The tax rate figure I could not resolve Krane stated that the proposed tax rate is a decrease from the prior year's rate and the lowest in more than 10 years. The minutes record a figure of 2.52 percent alongside that statement. I am not going to publish that number as a rate change, because it does not behave like one. A rate expressed in New Jersey is normally stated in dollars and cents per $100 of assessed value, and 2.52 in that form would be a rate, not a percentage move. The minutes do not disambiguate, and I could not verify the exact 2026 municipal tax rate per $100 from the record. What I could not verify The 2026 municipal tax rate per $100 of assessed value is not established in the record I reviewed. The minutes quote a figure of 2.52 percent in the context of the rate discussion, but the record does not make clear whether that is a rate per $100 or a percentage change, and the two readings mean very different things. Treat the verified claim as the one Krane made in words: the proposed rate is a decrease from the prior year and the lowest in more than 10 years. ## The 16 percent point Committeeman Croson noted that historically only 16 percent of the tax bill is municipal taxes. That is the context most residents are missing when they read a municipal budget headline. The property tax bill you pay in Warren is split among the municipal government, the Warren Township K-8 school district, Watchung Hills Regional High School, Somerset County and a small number of smaller levies. The municipal budget introduced on April 16 governs roughly a sixth of the bill. The practical consequence is arithmetic. A 6.14 percent increase applied to about 16 percent of the bill is a much smaller number at the bottom of the bill than the headline percentage suggests, which is consistent with the $64 figure on a home assessed at just over a million dollars. ## The health insurance move on the same night The Committee also adopted two resolutions that go directly to the largest line Krane named. Resolution 2026-115 joins the Township to the New Jersey Solutions Joint Health Insurance Fund. Resolution 2026-111 terminates the Township's participation in the State Health Benefits Program. Those are paired actions. Warren is leaving the state plan and moving employee health coverage into a joint insurance fund. A number of New Jersey municipalities have made the same move in recent years. The record from April 16 does not include a projected dollar savings, so I am not going to attach one. It does establish that the Committee acted on health insurance in the same session in which health insurance was named as a driver of the increase. ## What happens next The public hearing on both the budget and the Cap Bank ordinance is scheduled for May 14, 2026 at 7:00 p.m. in the Susie B. Boyce Court Room at 44 Mountain Boulevard. Town Hall at 46 Mountain Boulevard has been out of service since the February sprinkler pipe failure, which is why Committee business is running out of 44 Mountain. If you want to be heard on this budget, May 14 is the date that matters. After adoption, the numbers are set for the year. Sources 1. Township of Warren, Township Committee Regular Meeting Minutes and Resolution 2026-108, April 16, 2026\. [https://www.warrennj.org/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Minutes/\_04162026-968](https://www.warrennj.org/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Minutes/%5F04162026-968?ref=blog.johnmangini.com) 2. Township of Warren, Township Committee Agenda, April 16, 2026\. [https://www.warrennj.org/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Agenda/\_04162026-968](https://www.warrennj.org/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Agenda/%5F04162026-968?ref=blog.johnmangini.com) ![John Mangini](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f9/d2/f9d2e72e-65c9-4e98-ba1e-1a7bc528bfaa/content/images/2026/08/john-headshot.jpg) John Mangini Broker / Owner, NextHome Premier Warren Township resident and full time broker, serving clients since 1999\. Warren 07059 is written from live Garden State MLS data, township records and primary sources. Every figure is traceable to a source listed above. [732.236.1087](tel:+17322361087) [john@nexthomepremier.com](mailto:john@nexthomepremier.com) 102 Town Center Drive, Warren [JohnMangini.com](https://www.johnmangini.com/?ref=blog.johnmangini.com) [Reviews on Zillow](https://www.zillow.com/profile/John%20Mangini?ref=blog.johnmangini.com) [About this site](https://blog.johnmangini.com/about/)