As in all prior years during my tenure as mayor, this year’s proposed budget was formulated with the theme of “long-term financial planning and sustainability.” The purpose of these two principles is to predict how actions taken this year and next will have impacts on budgets and services going forward. It has long been a mandate of my Administration that we refrain from a policy of up and down “spikes” in our budgets and tax levies, and we have been successful. With no increase in the municipal portion of the property tax in 2014 and 2015, the 2016 budget adopted will result in an average increase of $52 per household.
The following is a summary of where we are regarding our financial status today:
1. Since 2001 the year I took over as mayor, West Windsor had 171 full-time employees, and 17 part-time employees; as of today we have 168 full-time employees and 16 part-time employees. Three of those full-time employees were hired after the dissolution of the Twin W Rescue Squad in 2015. During this same period of time West Windsor’s population increased by more than 27 percent.
2. The municipal portion of the property tax is about 15 percent of the total property tax bill, over which the mayor and township council have direct control. This covers all of the municipal services provided to residents, including public safety, open space acquisition and preservation, public works, yard waste collection, recycling, garbage pick-up, community development (code enforcement, engineering, planning and zoning) and human services (health, parks and recreation, senior and social services). Some other municipalities pay extra taxes to fire districts and pay extra for garbage pick-up; West Windsor is a full service community. And West Windsor had the lowest total tax rate ($0.4 per $100 assessed property value in 2013 and 2015) of the municipalities in this region. The 2016 adopted budget will go up to $0.41 per $100 assessed property value.
3. As shown in the article titled “Mercer County Municipal Property Tax Changes from 2000 to 2015” (by Kevin Shea, NJ.com, February 9, 2016) West Windsor residents on average, next to Princeton, paid the second highest total property tax in Mercer County in 2015 (based on the second highest property values in Mercer County); but compared to other local townships, we had the lowest percentage of property tax increase over the last 15 years. Among all 12 municipalities in Mercer, the average increase was 32.9 pecent while West Windsor had a 13.9 percent increase.
4. In terms of the home sale prices, as shown in the article “Jersey Housing Market Recovering” by Christina Rajas, Times of Trenton, March 27, 2016, West Windsor has the highest percentage of appreciation in Mercer County at 20.49 percent from the year 2005 to 2015, running an almost 10 percent increase consistently for every five-year period.
5. Since November of 2007 West Windsor has gained and retained the highest possible bond rating, Standard and Poor’s AAA. Only 19 (3 percent) of New Jersey’s 565 municipalities have this rating, and West Windsor is one of the few of those that are a full-service community. Since 2007 the AAA rating has saved the township about $1.6 million in debt service payments. We estimate approximately $200,000 in savings on an estimated $10 million bond issue planned for 2016.
At this point we have been mostly successful in accomplishing the budget objectives: “long-term financial planning and sustainability” as was agreed to at the first administration and council retreat in 2001. It is critical to adhere to these financial policies and management practices. To reiterate, West Windsor is recognized as a community with the following financial characteristics:
One of the municipalities with the lowest municipal purpose tax rate in the region with full public services; keeping annual property tax increases at a reasonable and predictable level; having the highest home sale appreciation in Mercer County over the past 10 years; and retaining a Standard & Poor’s AAA bond rating since 2007.
Shing-Fu Hsueh
