The 2008 proposed municipal budget in West Windsor is up about $2.6 million over last year’s and officials are projecting a 3.5 cent tax increase with it. That would translate roughly to a $140 a year tax increase on a home with an assessed valuation of $400,”000.##M:[more]##
The proposed $35.4 million budget, up from last year’s $32.8 million budget, carries a proposed tax rate of 31.57 cents per $100 of assessed value. The amount to be raised through taxation is proposed to be $19.7 million.
The $2.6 million increase, according to officials, includes contractual salary, group insurance, and state-mandated pension increases. Revenue includes $8.55 million in miscellaneous items, $2.9 million in state aid, $74,”670 in grants, and the $19.7 million to be raised through taxation.
A memo from Mayor Shing-Fu Hsueh to council stated that the total expenditures were reduced by $404,”410 by the administration from $35.85 million to $35.4 million, as requested by the department and division heads. It also states that $4.2 million from surplus “will be required in order to bring the 2008 budget into balance.” That will leave $3.4 million in surplus for 2009 and 2010.
Added into the mix is that West Windsor lost $240,”411 in state aid this year, which Hsueh says is equivalent to almost half a penny on the tax rate.
“It’s definitely a factor,” says township Business Administrator Chris Marion. “We’re feeling it.”
The largest specific increases in the budget appropriation are in the areas of salaries and wages, which were up $612,”984 for a total of $12.045 million and debt service, which was up by $502,”153 to 4.8 million. The police and firemen’s retirement system was up by $383,”949, group insurance was up $355,”000, and the public employees retirement system was up $144,”250.
The proposed budget includes funding for vacant or replacement positions in the departments of Community Development (where the township is looking to fill the township engineer, assistant township engineer, and assistant zoning officer positions), Public Safety, and Public Works. A public safety telecommunicator in the Department of Public Safety, an administrative assistant in the clerk’s office, and a part-time bus driver in the Department of Human Services’ senior and social services division — are new positions proposed in this year’s budget.
Also included in West Windsor’s appropriations is $36,”300 for the Planning Board. Hsueh and Marion say that’s due to a lot of issues on the board’s plate this year, despite the fact it no longer has responsibility for redevelopment.
“There’s a lot of interest in moving a lot of things forward, and that’s driving those professional service costs up,” Marion said.
Hsueh said that this year the board will be starting the reexamination of the Master Plan, as well as continuing work it has already begun on mass rezoning of residential districts. Because of a township-wide rezoning in the 1990s, about 80 percent of residential lots in the township became nonconforming with township code, officials said. Work also includes going through the Office of Smart Growth plan endorsement process, which officials have said they hoped to begin by the end of the year.
The budget, Hsueh said, probably won’t include include a school resource officer position in the Department of Public Safety, as originally proposed, because the school board said it was not going to be including its half of the funding for the salary in its own budget because Plainsboro officials were not on board with the idea.
“We understand Plainsboro is not interested in the position,” said board member Randall Tucker, who serves on the administration and facilities committee, where the matter is currently being reviewed. “I don’t think the committee is at a point where we can recommend it.” He said the reason is because school officials don’t want to place a school resource officer at one high school, and not the other.
That was among the topics discussed by the Township Council and emergency officials, including Police Chief Joseph Pica, during the budget session on March 18. During that session, officials also discussed the need for the purchase of a $900,”000 new fire truck for the Princeton Junction Volunteer Fire Company. One item that was not in the budget that Councilman Charles Morgan says he insisted be put back in is money for remote control devices for the fire trucks and ambulances, so that rescue crews can change the light signals at intersections.
One intersection that came to mind for Morgan was at Clarksville and Penn Lyle, where Princeton Junction Fire Chief Dennis Huber has said it sometimes takes up to three light cycles for a fire truck to turn onto Penn Lyle Road in the late afternoon when school lets out. “I was horrified that a fire truck would have to sit at a light to get to a fire,” Morgan said. “That’s something that will have virtually no impact on the tax rate because it’s bondable, and the cost over the lifetime of those devices is minuscule,” Morgan said.
Another issue raised at the budget session was the $25 alarm fees that residents pay every year to register their alarms with the police department. The council will be examining this as it moves along in budget discussions. Morgan says he personally feels that “if the purpose of the $25 fee is not budgetary,” and rather it is used to facilitate the annual gathering of residential data — so that police have accurate contact information for residents in case their alarms go off — “maybe that was the wrong answer for that problem.”
The council has held three other budget sessions, including one on the capital improvement budget, which, right now, remains at $6,”365,”230 and includes sidewalk and roadway improvements. Officials discussed road improvements between this year and 2014. Roads eyed for 2008 include Windsor, Dorchester, and Hathaway drives, a portion of New Village Road, and Varsity Avenue. There was some discussion about where to cut down on capital improvement costs, but the administration is still looking into where to cut costs, if any, Marion said.
The conditions of the township’s roads as well as road safety, according to Council President Will Anklowitz, are one of the biggest concerns for residents, and he says he hears from more from his constituents about the topic than he does about redevelopment. “Roads wear out,” he said. “It’s not uncommon to go around town and have folks point out an intersection nearby that as sure as they’re standing there, they’re sure somebody’s going to have a crash and get hurt. They’re local roads, and people know them backwards and forwards.”
In a presentation to council on March 17, Ken Carlson and Alison Miller, of the West Windsor Bicycle and Pedestrian Alliance, urged the council to include more money than the $5,”000 allocated for striping in this year’s budget. “There’s going to be a number of crosswalks and intersections that need to be improved,” upon the alliance’s completion of a crosswalk inventory it has already begun for the township, Carlson said. “This crosswalk situation in town needs to be addressed.”
They also recommended that improvements be made to the intersection at Route 571 and Slayback Drive, near Community Park, where there are currently no crosswalks. Carlson said that with the dog and skate parks and the swimming pool located at Community Park, an already-busy intersection will see more pedestrian and bicycle traffic as the weather gets warmer. Carlson also said the alliance became aware of a county restriping program, and county officials asked the alliance to get endorsement from township officials before the striping is done across Route 571.
Despite the pending striping, there are still other improvements needed at the intersection, they said, including the installation of walk/don’t walk indicators and adjustments to the push button for the cross signal.
Anklowitz said nothing in the budget is final until it is introduced and adopted by council, and that the council and other officials are still reviewing items in the budget. The next budget session is scheduled for Thursday, April 3 at 7 p.m. at the municipal building.
