How Bound Brook is run
Who runs Bound Brook, what it costs, and where your money goes
The city manager, council pay, the budget, your property tax bill and who provides each service, from Bound Brook's own public documents. Every number links to its source and says which year it describes. Checked Oct 11, 2026.
Who runs Bound Brook
The elected mayor heads the city government and appoints its top administrator and department heads. The council passes laws, adopts the budget and sets the tax rate.
What they are paid
Bound Brook city staff
The introduced 2026 budget lists 63 full-time and 45 part-time employees, up from 62 full-time and 24 part-time in 2025. We found no list of individual employee pay. We name pay only for elected officials and the city manager.
Is Bound Brook in the red?
Cities must pass a balanced budget, so "profit" and "deficit" mean something different here. The useful questions: does the city's everyday money (the general fund) cover its everyday costs, how much does it keep in savings compared with its own target, and how big are its pension and debt bills.
Savings
Unassigned general fund balance: $8.3M (2024-12-31). Borough of Bound Brook · Jul 28, 2025
Why we skip the "budgeted deficit": many cities plan to dip into savings, then spend less than planned. The audited result tells you what really happened.
Where the money comes from and goes
The general fund only: the city's everyday money for 2026.
Comes from
- Property tax for municipal purposes$10.3M · 47%
- Fund balance (surplus) used$3.5M · 16%
- Special items (mostly PILOT payments from redevelopment projects)$3.5M · 16%
- Local revenues (fees, fines and licenses)$3M · 14%
- State aid$1.1M · 5%
- Delinquent taxes$240,000 · 1%
- Other (construction code fees, shared services and grants)$370,872 · 2%
Goes to (2026)
- Police$4.2M · 19%
- Debt service$2.9M · 13%
- Pension, Social Security and other statutory costs$1.8M · 8%
- Reserve for uncollected taxes$1.3M · 6%
- Streets and roads$1.2M · 6%
- Other insurance$850,000 · 4%
- Solid waste collection$645,000 · 3%
- Emergency medical services$500,000 · 2%
- Other (employee health insurance, administration, recreation, fire and others)$8.7M · 39%
Who provides your services
Not everything in Bound Brook is run by the city. Who provides a service decides whose budget pays for it and whose election decides it.
- PoliceThe cityBound Brook Police DepartmentBorough of Bound Brook
- StreetsThe cityBound Brook Department of Public WorksBorough of Bound Brook
- ParksThe cityBound Brook Department of Public WorksBorough of Bound Brook
- Storm sewersThe cityBound Brook Department of Public WorksBorough of Bound Brook
- Trash collectionThe cityBorough of Bound BrookBorough of Bound Brook · Aug 25, 2026
Compared with similar cities
The cities in this state closest in population that we cover. Read it for scale, not as a ranking: cities provide different services.
| Per city | WallingtonNJ | FreeholdNJ | OaklandNJ | Bound BrookNJ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Residents | 12,092 | 12,562 | 12,837 | 13,038 |
| Top administrator's base pay | Not confirmed | Not confirmed | Not confirmed | Not confirmed |
| Council member pay | Not confirmed | $8,347 | Not confirmed | Not confirmed |
| General fund per resident | $1,442 | $1,722 | $2,105 | $1,694 |
| Debt per resident | $1,292 | $2,293 | $2,286 | $2,040 |
| Unfunded pension per resident | $701 | $1,021 | $1,123 | $752 |
| City staff per 1,000 residents | — | — | — | — |
Figures as shown in each city's section, divided by its population. Years differ by state, and pension figures are measured differently in each state (each city page says how).
What Bound Brook publishes
What a resident can find online today. A "no" is something you can ask the council to publish.
- No: City manager's contract findable onlineWe found no contract or document stating the Administrator's pay. Only the title of the 2026 salary range ordinance is posted. Borough of Bound Brook · Sep 23, 2026
- No: Council votes recorded member by member onlineCouncil minutes are hosted on eCode360, which we could not open. Posted budget resolutions leave the recorded vote table blank. Borough of Bound Brook · Aug 25, 2026
- No: Council pay stated in a public documentWe found no posted document stating the mayor's or council members' pay. Borough of Bound Brook · Sep 23, 2026
- No: Employee pay publishedOnly the title of the 2026 salary range ordinance is posted. We found no list of employee pay. Borough of Bound Brook · Sep 23, 2026
Questions to ask your council
- The final 2026 budget uses $3.5 million of surplus, while the Current Fund balance was $8.26 million on December 31, 2024. How much surplus can future budgets rely on?
- Bound Brook owed $26.6 million at the end of 2024, including short-term bond anticipation notes. How and when will those notes be paid off or refinanced?
- Bound Brook's share of state pension liabilities was $9.81 million at June 30, 2025. How will rising pension costs fit into future budgets?
Help decide what comes next
What do you want to know about Bound Brook next?
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Every number here was checked by hand against the linked document. Cities publish on different schedules, so years differ between sections; each figure says which year it describes. Spotted something wrong or out of date?
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