Mayor Shing-Fu Hsueh will deliver his 2012 “State of the Township” address on Monday, March 12, at 7 p.m. and will discuss the forthcoming environmental education center planned for Schenck Farmstead, a planned new park at the Gables, and fast-moving renovations now underway at Windsor Plaza on Princeton-Hightstown Road.
Amid budget talks and scrutiny of the township’s spending, Hsueh will present plans for sustainability as part of his long-term vision for the township. Hsueh says he will refer to an article published in the Times of Trenton on January 8 showing that West Windsor was one of the most stable municipalities in terms of property tax rate in all of Mercer County.
“Philosophically I always try to make sure that property tax increases each year never go above two pennies. The only time I wasn’t able to do that was last year, the reason being that last year we went up more than two pennies because the year before Council decided to use the sale of a liquor license (for $611,000) for property tax relief,” the mayor says.
As infrastructure and capital improvements were laid out by the administration’s 2012 budget, Hsueh will speak about planned improvements to the municipal complex as well as the potential for change with the post office building adjacent to it.
“This year we have another liquor license sale of $2.5 million, [for Bobby’s Burger Palace at MarketFair] which will be used for improvements to public infrastructure, to make sure we use that money as an investment to save money in the long term,” Hsueh says, adding that using that money for property tax relief would cause the township to end up with a bigger hole next year.
“One shot is not going to help sustain property taxes for a municipal budget. It’s part of the whole concept and plan for sustainability in West Windsor, which has three components — environmental, social, and economic,” he said.
With a 2012 budget that would increase the municipal tax levy by just 1.86 percent, the mayor maintains that spikes and up-and-down tax rates will not happen under his watch. Property tax stability will reign as he seeks to make improvements to the township.
The mayor will touch on the future of the InterCap project and how the transit-village designation will provide West Windsor with guaranteed support from all state agencies in the future development of the site. Hsueh also says with the transit village and more global headquarters coming to West Windsor, the township should have a volunteer group to promote the area for business. The mayor is taking preliminary steps to form an advisory group to help promote West Windsor as a business-friendly community.
“Whoever has the interest and ability to help the business community will be invited to join,” he said.
