Plainsboro’s 2015 budget proposal requests a two cent municipal tax increase and a total budget increase of 3.4 percent. As in years past, the finalized tax increase is expected to be adjusted downwards after calls for a reduced levy by Mayor Pete Cantu and the township committee.
Business Administrator Bob Sheehan presented the budget at the February 25 committee meeting and will present a revised budget at the next meeting on Wednesday, March 11.
The proposed two-cent increase will bump the municipal levy from 37.78 cents to 39.68 cents per $100 of assessed value, which represents an increase of $77.40 for the average Plainsboro home valued at $387,000.
The total proposed 2015 budget is $26,462,297, an $862,149 increase over the 2014 budget. The main increases in expenses include $370,000 tax settlement; $110,275 for a planned re-assessment; $107,000 payment of bond principal; $109,125 in medical insurance; and $72,000 in salary and wages.
The tax settlement is the result of a longstanding tax appeal in which the township must pay $2.5 million over five years to Ivy Realty, the owner of the former Merrill Lynch site on Scudders Mill road. The township paid the first $500,000 last year, and the $370,000 increase will be bundled with yearly budgeted funds for tax appeals to pay this year’s $500,000 installment. The tax appeal centered on the corporate campus for the years after Merrill Lynch’s departure, 2008 to 2011. Ivy purchased the site from Merrill, and the company has since leased out the more than 800,000 square feet site to Novo Nordisk.
The township is also waiting to hear back from the state tax court in regard to tax appeals filed by Merrill Lynch over the same property for the years 2005 and 2006.
The planned re-assessment will be the first significant property value adjustment since the revaluation a decade ago. More than 50 percent of properties will be inspected in 2015.
“We believe the market is changing at a quicker pace, and we want to keep up with it to make sure our values our current,” Sheehan says. “Apartment values have increased, the hotel industry is coming back, so we want to make sure everyone, including the residential folks, are paying their fair share.”
Re-assessed values will be finalized by the end of the year and go into effect in 2016, with additional tax revenue expected that year.
The budget for the library totals slightly more than $2 million, a $13,000, or 0.6 percent, increase from last year.
On the revenue side, the preliminary surplus allocation is $3.74 million, or 14.13 percent of budget. Increases in PILOT payments, hotel taxes, and UCC fees in 2014 totaled more than $330,000, and the budget proposal will anticipate them at higher levels.
From the hospital redevelopment site, the 2014 PILOT payments include $840,000 from the medical arts pavilion; $440,000 from the Merwick Center; and $180,000 from Princeton Fitness & Wellness Center. The University Medical Center also paid $72,000 in hospital impact fees.
“The hospital does not make a PILOT payment. They do make a community impact payment. They, as a nonprofit, are excluded,” Sheehan says.
Deputy Mayor Honored. On February 4 Plainsboro Deputy Mayor Neil J. Lewis was inducted into the Elected Officials’ Hall of Fame at the New Jersey State League of Municipalities 23rd annual Mayors’ Legislative Day. Lewis was recognized for his 20 years of service as a member of a municipal governing body. According to the League of Municipalities, Lewis’s dedicated service stands as an “excellent example of civic pride for all citizens to emulate.”
Plainsboro Mayor Peter Cantu was similarly honored last year, when he was inducted into the Mayors’ Hall of Fame as a “white” level member, or someone who has served for more than 30 years.
