The wheels keep spinning for the West Windsor Township Council as deliberations on the budget continue, with hardly anything concrete ready for introduction.
As council and administration are at an impasse regarding how to reduce the 2010 proposed spending plan any further, the originally projected introduction date of Monday, May 17, is nearly impossible.
The council’s third budget workshop on May 10 yielded consensus on a small number of items. The administration will take the council’s direction and come back with a scaled-back budget for council to review again.
Agreement was made on cutting overtime for non-essential personnel; cutting non-essential part-time positions; and cutting back on seasonal workers the township hires for the summer months.
The council also discussed the idea of having brush and leaf collections only during the three months in spring and the three in the fall and redirecting the resources to maintenance of grounds for grass cutting in the summer, instead of having seasonal employees, Council President George Borek said.
“We budgeted $25,000 for that,” said Borek. “If you can do the leaf and brush limited to the three months in the spring and three in the fall, then you have some resources for lawn maintenance.”
The council also discussed Councilwoman Diane Ciccone’s idea of implementing furlough days once a month and Councilman Charles Morgan’s ides to use more surplus.
There is still much to deliberate. “Some of my colleagues want to go to zero (percent increase),” said Borek. “Some are willing to go to a 4 percent increase. There’s no consensus.”
Borek personally thinks a 4 percent increase — down from the originally projected 5.8 percent tax levy increase — is reasonable. “It would be too devastating to the township to go to zero because you’re actually laying off and firing people, which would not be a good thing because you’re basically downsizing the township. There’s an expectation that people want a certain level of service.”
There is one agreement the council and members of the administration share: “Joint frustration that it’s not an easy process,” said Business Administrator Robert Hary. “The administration really feels they’ve done their best to put forward a ‘bare bones’ budget that does not call for reduction and staff, and therefore reduction in services.”
“We’re just going to keep working at it,” Hary added. “The administration is going to continue to re-work the budget to see what we can come up with.”
Borek said the administration is going to report back to council by the end of the week so discussions can continue at the council’s next meeting on Monday, May 17.
It will take a reduction of $1.64 million in West Windsor’s 2010 municipal budget to get to a zero percent tax increase this year.
The $37.1 million proposed 2010 package represents an increase of $626,000 from last year’s $36.5 million budget, but the tax levy will increase from $20.6 million to $21.8 million, a 5.8 percent increase. The proposed municipal tax rate is therefore estimated to be .357 in 2010, reflecting a 2.6-cent increase from .331 in 2009.
Under the 33.1-cent rate, the owner of an average assessed home of $534,782 would see an increase of $139, from $1,770 last year to $1,909 this year.
This year’s $37.1 million proposed budget uses $200,000 more in surplus for a total $4.4 million being used to offset taxes.
