Town Council, by a vote of 5 to 0, has instructed the administration to produce a budget that has a zero tax levy increase. The administration had recommended a budget with a 1.33 percent tax levy increase.
Over a series of special public work sessions, the Council listened to budget presentations from each of the township’s departments and then reviewed every line item in the administration’s budget. The Council made several changes, decreasing the budgets for some departments, and adding funding for others. In addition, the revised budget contemplates using greater resources from the township’s fund balance, a move which had not been recommended by the Township’s Chief Financial Officer, Joann Louth (WW-P News, February 21).
In a joint interview with Council Vice President Linda Geevers, Council President Bryan Maher said, “We scrutinized the budget line by line, in order to encourage financial prudence. We have trimmed the operating budget. We did not take an axe to any item or department but just trimmed some of the fat. We made some rational, bottom-line decisions to some of the budgets. It is up to the administration to make the line-item changes to reflect the new bottom lines.”
Said Geevers: “We took our fiduciary responsibilities seriously. This budget is reflective of the Council’s views and our revisions. Through this process, we are no longer just rubber-stamping the administration’s budget.”
One of the items that were increased by the council included reducing tuition reimbursement by $5,000 to $80,000. According to Maher, this reduction was justified because as of the third quarter of 2013, only $16,000 had been spent in this category. In addition, he said, the newly negotiated labor contracts max out individual requests to $4,000.
“If every single person asks for the maximum allowable training in 2014, then the total cost will be $89,000, so we will be over budget. It is a risk, but a justifiable one.”
“We also reduced the budget for fire hydrant maintenance services. Thanks to the efforts of resident John Church, who counted all of the township fire hydrants, we have learned that the township only needs to spend about $740,000 for this service,” Maher continued. “Every year, we have budgeted $895,000 for this-and have been charged that much. This year, the administration asked for $783,000; we reduced that to $748,000.”
“Altogether, we cut $83,150 in line item reductions from the operating budget. We then lowered legal fees from $113,000 to $100,000. Our township attorney was present and he didn’t object to this. This portion of the budget includes three categories: legal fees, litigation, and labor attorney fees. We reduced this item somewhat because some council members believe that our litigation expenses will be lower this year — some of our more costly litigation has been completed, and I think there will be more settlements of outstanding cases.” (See sidebar, page 16.)
The Council also increased the asphalt budget, which includes pothole repair as well as winter storm supplies by $40,000. They added a line item for National Night Out, with a budget of $3,000, and increased the council’s own education budget by $750 to $5,000.
Said Maher: “After these changes, we still needed approximately $455,000 to be able to reach a zero percent tax levy increase, which was our goal. Another area we scrutinized was our revenue streams. The administration has consistently under budgeted for our sources of revenue, so we corrected that. For example, every year they budget $775,000 for UCC fees, but even in the leanest economic years, our actual revenue in this area has been between $1.2 to $2.2 million. So we increased the revenue line item in this category to a flat one million dollars.”
Maher explained that police revenue has declined by $101,000, but that can be accounted for because although the department hired 5 new patrol officers in 2013, they spent most of the year at the police academy, and so there were less officers on hand to patrol and issue tickets.
“So we increased the projected revenue in this category as well. We took that money out of the fund balance; however, we believe that we will recoup all of that revenue, so that it will go right back into the fund balance this year. Chief Joe Pica agrees with that assessment.”
Considering all of the reductions and additions to the budget, the Council needed to withdraw an additional $84,000 out of the fund balance. In order to reach a zero percent increase in the tax levy. Said Maher “I know that Louth is opposed to large one-shot budget fixes, but she was referring to 2010, when the Council used $600,000 from liquor license revenue to balance the budget. That is more than we are contemplating this year.”
“In addition, the township has a lot of available money on hand, besides the fund balance, most of which is in already-funded capital projects accounts that have not been spent. As of December 2013, the township had $49,587,000 in its various bank accounts, most of which is for capital projects. John Church, who was instrumental in helping us prepare for the budget review, figured out that there is enough cash to give every man, woman and child in West Windsor a check for $1,900,” said Maher.
“So during the second quarter of the year, we will be carefully reviewing these capital projects to find out which are not likely to be done, which are no longer needed, and which are still viable. We will also work with the administration to see how much of this money can be reallocated to other things.” Geevers noted, “I have long pushed for a flat tax rate increase from year to year. Bryan and I want our government to run more like a business.”
After all of the deliberations, the Council voted unanimously to adopt the new budget, which will be formally introduced at the net Council meeting on March 17.
“Our fund balance is currently approximately $7 million. I am comfortable with a fund balance of $5 million. I would have liked it to be even lower, frankly, but I understand the need for a cash cushion. Plus, I wanted to reach consensus with my fellow council members during this process. I wanted everyone to have input, and have everyone’s views heard and respected. This is a budget that all of us feel comfortable with, and I am satisfied with that,” Maher added.
