Residents can expect an increase of about $20 on their county tax bill, after the Board of Chosen Freeholders adopted an operating budget for 2013 last week.      

The $410.96 million dollar budget carries an increase of just under 2 percent from the 2012 budget, and is more than $2.5 million under the state mandated cap, according to county officials. The average county tax bill in South Brunswick last year was $1,517.66.

“Since 2008, we have made strategic, systematic changes to the way we do business, and the efforts are illustrated in the 2013 Budget," said new Freeholder Director Ronald Rios via release. "It is a budget that enables us to provide the services and programs our residents need. It will enable to maintain our parks, recreational facilities and infrastructure.

"It also enables us to expand our public safety, health and human services. At the same time, it puts our taxpayers first. We have cut every item we control and continue to seek out ways to generate new revenue.”

At last week's meeting, Freeholder Carol Barrett Bellante, chair of the County’s Finance Committee, said a leading firm awarded Middlesex a Triple A bond rating. Bellante also said a freeze on hiring and non-essential purchases, established shared service opportunities with 25 municipalities and neighboring counties, and an overhaul of organizational structure to brought down the operating cost.

“I am pleased to note that these austere practices have saved the County more than $20 million in operating expenses since 2008," she said. "These very same practices were a key element to our reaffirmed Triple A rating."

During the meeting in which Rios was named the new director, Blanquita B. Valenti was also named Deputy Director of the board.

Rios said the county will pursue several initiatives this year, including the restoration of the Roosevelt Hospital in Edison; the implementation of the solar panel field at the county’s Apple Orchard Lane Complex, which officials said would provide 100 percent of the complex’s power needs to save tax payers $1 million a year for the next 15 years; and the continuation of the Veterans Housing Assistance Program in Middlesex County, which seeks to end homelessness for military veterans.