The Hopewell Township Committee is committed to delivering the services our residents expect for the lowest possible cost.
Our guiding philosophy has been, “it’s your money, and we need to get the best value out of every dollar.”
I am happy to announce that Hopewell Township’s 2023 municipal tax rate will decrease by -0.7% vs. last year. Once again, we have held the line on spending, and our efforts to diversify and broaden the tax base are working.
This year’s municipal budget is not only below New Jersey’s 2% cap, but also delivers net spending well below the underlying U.S. rate of inflation.
Here’s one simple example of how we are doing more with less: the purchase of double-axle Public Works vehicles allow us to carry two times more salt, brush and leaves versus traditional Public Works trucks.
The continued increase in the township’s ratables base is also contributing to a lower tax rate per $100 of assessed value. This past year, the township’s ratable base increased by +2.7%, as our efforts to attract new investments in our community like BeiGene and to improve home values, are starting to bear fruit.
We expect to see significant additional gains in the years ahead, which will further reduce the burden on residential property taxpayers. These gains not only help lower municipal taxes, but also reduce township residents’ share of school, county and fire district taxes.
Our new Tourism and Economic Development Advisory Committee is working to attract the right balance of new Main Street businesses as well as larger corporate investments like PTC Therapeutics and BeiGene in Hopewell Township.
Additionally, we are successfully utilizing monies recouped from the Woodmont and Lennar projects, for the benefit of current residents. Last year, we secured over $2 million in rollback taxes from Woodmont and Lennar, which we are utilizing to bolster our surplus balance (now over $11 Million dollars), and to fund the direct capital purchase of important projects across the township.
Within the 2023 Capital Budget, this funding includes the replacement of our aged turf field at Twin Pines, the purchase of a new police SUV, and preservation and upgrades at the historic schoolhouse at the corner of Scotch and Washington Crossing–Pennington Roads.
Importantly, this latter funding will trigger additional private investment into the preservation of this community landmark.
But our work is not yet done. The Township Committee is working towards longer-term savings opportunities. These include further reducing township debt. Approximately one in four dollars in this year’s budget goes to paying off prior year capital purchases and other obligations.
They also include negotiating additional shared service agreements, including the recent agreement with the boroughs on Health and Animal Control, and shifting employees to new health coverage that delivers competitive benefits at significantly lower cost. We have now closed on new labor agreements with our union partners that cement these gains.
Looking ahead, we expect to begin seeing significant new revenues from our PILOT, or Payment in Lieu of Taxes, agreements with BeiGene and others in fiscal years 2024 and 2025. With these additional revenues and our ongoing efforts to reduce spending, we foresee continued progress towards tax reduction in the years ahead.
It’s gratifying to see this progress, after all the hard work by our township team, our professionals and my fellow committee members over the past six months.
If you have questions or other ideas on how we can make township government more effective and efficient, please feel free to reach out to me or any one of the other committee members. My direct email is kdkhopewelltwp@gmail.com or you can reach me via phone at (609) 439-8044.