It will take a reduction of $1.64 million in West Windsor’s 2010 municipal budget to get to a zero percent tax increase this year, and one way to find those savings could be through a reduction of refuse collection, according to township administrators.
That was just one option put on the table by the administration during the Township Council’s budget workshop meeting on April 16. During the meeting, council reviewed the operating budgets for the Public Works, Public Safety, and Community Development departments. The next workshop meeting is scheduled for Friday, April 30, at 9:30 a.m.
Prior to the meeting, however, Business Administrator Robert Hary submitted documents to the council showing cuts that could be made if the council decides to try to keep taxes flat for residents in light of the economy.
“We talked about refuse collection and whether or not we can consider reducing costs to trash pickup by potentially going to once a week pick-up in the summer,” said Hary. “Right now, we have twice-a-week pickup in the summer and once a week in the rest of the year.”
The township’s contract with its garbage collection company expires on January 31, 2011, Hary said, pointing out that the contract costs the township $2 million each year. According to Hary’s memo to the council, in order to realize any savings for 2010, the township would have to break the agreement early and simultaneously notify residents that garbage services are no longer being provided. By eliminating the refuse program, the budget could be reduced just under $2 million per year. “However, there is only about half the impact realized in 2010 since the budget will not be adopted until June,” the memo stated.
“We clearly are going to try to get multiple prices to see what’s the most cost effective way of providing the service,” Hary said.
“Another option is to eliminate garbage collection at all and let people provide that privately,” Hary said. “My concern with that is we’ve called around to some refuse collection companies, and the cost of that to the public would be more than what we currently charge. I don’t know that that’s a way to go, but clearly, that’s an option.”
However, services like garbage collection are what distinguish West Windsor from neighboring municipalities. “We’re a full service community,” Hary said. “We don’t have a separate fire district, so our emergency services are provided as part of your tax dollars. Plus, we are very fortunate enough to have that supplemented and complemented by volunteers.”
“So when you’re comparing taxes in one municipality over another, you have to take into account you do have garbage collection here, and you don’t have a separate fire district tax,” Hary added. “Other examples would be things like brush collection. It’s not unusual for neighboring municipalities to have two brush collections a year — one in the fall, and one in the spring. After that, you hire a contractor, or haul it away yourself. Right now, we provide it on a monthly basis.”
An analysis of refuse collection and disposal cost, including the numbers the council could save, depending on the month. The monthly cost to the township for household pick-up is $45,450. So, as of July, 2010, the council could save $272,700. As late as December, 2010, the council would save just one month’s costs — $45,450.
There is also a breakdown of costs for recycling tax, the Mercer County Improvement Authority, which costs the township $1.08 million annually, and Kelly Bill reimbursements and multi-family dwelling unit charges. The total annual charge comes to $1.96 million.
In the information Hary and Chief Financial Officer Joanne Louth provided to the council, the council could also look at controlling legal and consultant costs if the administration and council work together to make changes, like considering a moratorium on land use ordinance changes and deciding to limit litigation expenses.
“The only other way to reduce the budget further to have any sizable impact would be to reduce positions,” the memo stated.
Hary said discussion also focused on increasing revenues and shared services with neighbors as well as determining whether any local ordinances or state laws are cost ineffective and working to modify them — either through the local ordinance review process or by appealing to the League of Municipalities to lobby for state laws to be revised.
The submitted data to council from Hary also includes an analysis of shared services as well as a line item-by-line item list of reductions already made.
Some of the bigger reductions from the 2010 requests from department heads included cutting $3.6 million from this year’s budget toward the second phase of Meadow Road improvements; $120,000 from the restroom outbuilding for the Schenck Farmstead project; $250,000 from Community Park improvements; $100,000 from Zaitz Park improvements; $175,00 from the replacement of ambulances; and $100,000 from the equipment storage building for the Emergency Services Division.
In total, $5.2 million of the $10.8 million requested by department heads in 2010 was cut, leaving only $5.58 million of their requests intact.
The meeting on April 16 was the first of a few budget workshops the council expects to hold during this budget season.
The $37.1 million proposed 2010 package represents an increase of $626,000 from last year’s $36.5 million budget, but the tax levy will increase from $20.6 million to $21.8 million, a 5.8 percent increase.
Due to tax appeals and declining property values, the value of a tax penny has been reduced from $621,732 to $610,086. As a result, the proposed municipal tax rate is therefore estimated to be .357 in 2010, reflecting a 2.6-cent increase from .331 in 2009.
Under the 33.1-cent rate, the owner of an average assessed home of $534,782 would see an increase of $139, from $1,770 last year to $1,909 this year.
This year’s $37.1 million proposed budget uses $200,000 more in surplus for a total $4.4 million being used to offset taxes. In his memo to council, Mayor Shing-Fu Hsueh said using more than the $4.2 million the township used from its reserves last year to offset taxes was “a serious concern, given our goal of sound and efficient long-term management.”
