I read the mayor’s response to proposition 2.5 — limiting municipal tax increases to 2.5 percent annually. It is sad that something like proposition 2.5 is needed, but it is something long overdue for the beleaguered taxpayers of New Jersey. Municipal governments in the state need to remember that their job is to provide needed services effectively and efficiently — that’s all. And in doing that sometimes you need to make hard decisions, cut some expenses, and change service models.
I was disgusted when I read the veiled threat to discontinue centralized garbage collection. This is clearly a service that is used by everyone and for which large-scale community level coordination provides substantial savings. The threat reminded me of something out of the playbook of school budget shenanigans of about 10 years ago where school busing was not included in the budget and people that needed it had to pay for it. Clearly both of these are similar tactics to extract maximum pain and attention with no effort to cut pet projects.
Our municipal spending has increased way over 100 percent during the mayor’s tenure. A 2.5 percent yearly cap would save everyone thousands of dollars. What can we do now as a town to limit our spending increases — and, how about this — instead of a 2.5 percent increase how about a decrease?
How do we get the decrease? Read on:
1. Immediately stop funding the Arts Council with taxpayer money. The Arts Council should be funded by its members — just like youth soccer, the bike alliance, etc. It would be illuminating to see what Art Council functions would be funded if people that used them had to pay the cost of them.
And it is outrageous how much money we have already wasted on the Arts Council. Did you know that we have a taxpayer-funded Arts Council executive director — total compensation and benefits over $100,000 and a current open position for an assistant executive director? Did you know that we gave the Arts Council the old firehouse and are paying more than $700,000 of tax dollars to upgrade it to their specifications?
I’ve asked myself why the Arts Council could not use existing space at our schools, at the senior center, at the library, at places they rent with their own funds, at people’s homes. And let’s pretend that a taxpayer funded Arts Council is a good use of our money — why on earth would anyone take a building located in a residential area, and real estate worth $750,000, spend $700,000 on it to start, and only have parking for 20 cars? This is ridiculous. The total Arts Council cost to our town in both dollars and building has been over $2 million. Cut this to zero today.
2. Make specialized services self-funding. For example, increase user fees for new housing permits by at least a factor of 10.
3. Roll back the transit village plan. This dog has already cost us way over $3 million with no end in sight. The individual tax increases associated with the transit village are estimated to be between $3,000 to $7,000 per year. From what I read, the developer doesn’t feel it received adequate notice of the redevelopment plan. Sounds like it would be in everyone’s best interest to roll the zoning back to what it was initially and let NJ Transit and our Parking Authority build parking — like they wanted to do eight years ago.
4. Aggressively pursue shared services with adjoining towns and the county.
And, how about this: provide an open view of all our expenses and let the taxpayers decide what they want to fund. In the end, it is our money. Mike Baxter
Princeton Junction
