Council President George Borek says he is still gathering information from his council colleagues before a date is set for the “brainstorming” session, as council members have dubbed it, to generate ideas for saving money and lowering the tax impact on residents in the 2010 municipal budget.##M:[more]##
He said he expected to have a date set by the end of the week, after the News’ deadline. Setting a pre-budget meeting date, and the subsequent pre-budget meetings to follow, has been a priority since the council reorganized earlier this month.
“The first place to start is to get on the table every idea that should be discussed” during the pre-budget sessions, suggested Councilman Charles Morgan, as the council examined its options during the July 13 council meeting.
Typically, the council does not start holding meetings on the budget until after the new year, but council members, especially Morgan, have called for meetings to begin as early as the summer in preparation for the upcoming budget season, so that the issues and ideas for savings may be more fully vetted.
Borek said he felt that having the first meeting to determine which ideas brought to the table by each council member” are legitimate and which are not.”
Councilwoman Diane Ciccone, who was appointed to council in April in the middle of the budget season, said she sat down with the administration and they answered all of her questions in this past budget. However, “I would like to see a no-tax increase, and a scenario that shows what that includes,” Ciccone added.
Morgan echoed the sentiment, saying that he is “not interested in cutting any services,” but that council may be able to come up with alternative ways to save money if it is given a budget that includes no tax increase — and includes details of the areas and items that would have to be cut in order to achieve the goal. “We ought to be saying, ‘Come to us with one you want and one with a zero percent increase,’” he said.
Morgan also suggested that the council, in discussing their ideas for savings with the administration, come up with policies that the administration would then have to follow in creating its budget in order to “set policy the administration cannot ignore.”
“They have the privilege of setting the budget; we have the privilege of setting policy,” Morgan said. One such policy is to start collecting and keeping data to keep track of financial data, to help in “setting the stage for the people 5, 10, 15, years from now,” Morgan said, although council members and Hary said the township already keeps data like this.
Morgan also suggested that several dates be set for budget meetings, and then have council members send in their ideas so agendas can be created based on “what we think will pay the most dividends.”
Interim Business Administrator Robert Hary said that administration officials are constantly coming up with ideas and ways to cut costs, and that they do so every year beginning in September. The product of their discussions is put together into presentations the administration begins making to council in the winter during the budget season.
The rest of the meetings for discussion of budget items will be scheduled on dates separate from the council’s regularly scheduled business and agenda sessions. In the meantime, council members were asked to send dates they will be available for budget meeting in the near future.
Construction Fees. In other business during the July 13 meeting, council also discussed an idea put forth by Councilwoman Geevers — finding a way to correct what she says is an unfair burden to West Windsor taxpayers, who solely foot the bill for inspection and construction fees associated with expansion projects at Mercer County Community College.
Because West Windsor is the host community for the college, it is required by state law to waive fees associated with construction and expansion, Geevers says.
Hary said that in 2007, which is the most recent year the township has audited financial data available, the township waived over $200,”000 in fees, not for just the college, but also to the school district.
“I don’t believe that it is fair,” said Geevers, adding that students come from all over the area, including from Pennsylvania, to attend Mercer County Community College, and that she feels the other towns and the county should be aiding in covering the fees that the township has to waive. “It should not be an expense of West Windsor Township.”
She suggested that the administration discuss the issue with County Executive Brian Hughes and state legislators.
“It clearly does create some type of burden,” said Hary, but the matter is directly regulated by state statute. He said township officials can continue monitoring the situation. However, since it is a state law, “at this point, the point is well-taken, but we are able to accommodate it,” he told Geevers.
Council President George Borek said that Princeton University makes contributions to Princeton Borough for impact to the town, even though their fees are waived, and he suggested township officials ask MCCC if it would do the same.
After the meeting, Geevers said she feels council should consider a resolution to state legislators asking for them to consider changing the statutes that allow for the waiving of certain construction or inspection fees for community colleges.
“The basic issue is the county is going to be undergoing expansion and renovation work,” she said. “All of those fees for inspections are being waived because of the law. That law needs to be changed because it’s not fair that West Windsor has to bear the burden of covering the costs for the inspectors. The community college should be paying for those fees just as anyone else in town who needs to have inspections done will pay for it.”
She said the contribution from Princeton University is considered to be a payment in lieu of taxes, and that West Windsor already has a similar system in place with the Princeton Theological Seminary, which owns apartments in West Windsor that house its graduate students. Because some of those students have children who attend the WW-P school district, the seminary makes a payment in lieu of taxes to West Windsor already, instead of paying taxes.
