The 2026 budget and your tax bill

A Branchburg tax bill pays three separate budgets. Mayor James Schworn’s 2026 annual letter describes the split as approximately 60% to the Branchburg School District, 20% to Somerset County and 20% to municipal government. The user-friendly budget’s 2025 breakdown lists local schools at 59.10%, municipal purposes at 17.83% and municipal open space at a separate 2.93% — 20.76% for the two municipal lines together. The Township Committee sets only the municipal budget.

The 2026 municipal budget. Total General Fund appropriations are $28,437,328.59: $20,004,341 within caps, $6,632,987.59 excluded from caps and a $1,800,000 reserve for uncollected taxes. It raises a municipal-purpose levy of $16,504,732, which the user-friendly budget shows as $1,497,931 (9.98%) more than 2025’s $15,006,801, plus an open-space levy of $2,671,898.30 (the UFB prints the same levy as $2,671,898).

How it was adopted. The Committee introduced the budget on March 23, 2026 (Resolution No. 2026-69, all in favor) and the annual cap-bank Ordinance No. 2026-1510, adopted April 13, 4–0. At the April 27, 2026 Committee meeting it passed Resolution No. 2026-86 (the budget, read by title) and No. 2026-87 (authorization for self-examination), held the public hearing, at which no one spoke, and adopted the budget by Resolution No. 2026-88. Each vote was 5–0 (Aye: Young, Columbus, Owens, Beatrice, Schworn). In liaison reports that evening, Mr. Owens complimented the Budget Committee, and Mr. Young said the Township is likely to face more budget stress in coming years from the affordable-housing buildouts.

Two totals, side by side. The user-friendly budget reports $88,509,350 as the total estimated amount to be raised by taxes for 2026; the adopted budget’s levy worksheet totals $87,056,045.79. The two documents also differ on the school, county and open-space lines (the difference is $1,453,304.21 in sum). Neither document explains the variance; both totals are kept as printed.

The 2025 audit (Suplee, Clooney & Company LLC, dated Aug. 3, 2026) gave the Township an unmodified opinion on its regulatory-basis statements and a separate adverse opinion relative to U.S. GAAP, the standard result of New Jersey’s prescribed regulatory accounting. It identified no material weaknesses, no reportable noncompliance, and its Recommendations section reads “NONE.” The Committee acknowledged the audit on September 14, 2026 (Resolution No. 2026-156, consent agenda, 5–0). Year-end current fund balance is $11,801,344.22 in the audit’s schedule; the annual financial statement prints $11,802,344.22, a $1,000 difference neither document explains. The 2025 total tax rate was $1.709 per $100 (2024: $1.804), collections were 98.75% of the $84,959,605.69 levy, and the municipality paid $0 for tax appeals in 2025.

Debt. The 2024 Annual Debt Statement, filed Jan. 27, 2025, reports net debt of $35,650,364.62, 0.812% of the $4,387,921,011 equalized valuation basis. The UFB’s 2026 debt section lists municipal gross debt of $46,430,000, net $16,260,364.62, on a different authorization-year basis. On March 23, 2026 the Committee authorized the sale of general improvement bonds (Resolution No. 2026-77, 5–0), and on April 13 Mayor Schworn said the competitive bidding had produced very favorable interest rates. A Township release of April 28, 2025 states the Township retained a Standard & Poor’s AAA rating “for the 22nd consecutive year.”

Residents can read the adopted budget, the user-friendly budget and the audit on the Township website, and speak at the budget hearing each spring. See the explainer for every figure and the two levy totals set side by side.