In order to guarantee that the administration is serious in preventing a tax increase in the upcoming budget, Councilman Charles Morgan is proposing the council establish an official policy — via resolution — that there be a zero percent increase.
The intent, said Morgan, is to get the administration to show the council the implications of the alternatives, which would include any increases the administration may feel are necessary.
Other council members said, though, that passing the resolution would overstep the council’s authority. Morgan tried to put the resolution on the table during the council’s October 26 meeting, but council members agreed to reviewthe proposal during the Monday, November 9 meeting.
“I think it’s best to work with one budget we are given and then review where we are and what we want to do,” said Councilwoman Linda Geevers, who said she would not support the resolution. “The executive branch has to come forth with one budget recommendation to the council. The council then reviews the entire budget line by line.”
Morgan’s proposal stems from what he believes was 100 percent agreement on council in May that it wanted to see options for increases in one percent increments, all the way down to a zero percent increase in the 2010 municipal budget. Under the proposed policy, the administration would be required to show the implications of a zero percent increase — including the areas in the budget that would have to be cut to have a zero percent increase — followed by the implications of a 1 percent increase, and so on.
“We’ve got [Business Administrator Robert] Hary saying, ‘We listened, and we’re going to do the best,’ and those of us who asked before, and we’ve not received it,” Morgan said of the council’s requests for options. “It all goes back to whether or not we can trust the administration to do what council wants.”
The language in the proposed resolution states that the council “desires to have more than one budget alternative presented to it by the administration,” and that it believes “that it is important to have a zero-based budget option against which to compare the budget recommended by the administration.”
Morgan said the resolution would set the policy that the administration would also have to make cuts across the board in all departments, not just in one area. “How do you get them to give us an honest alternative that would be a viable alternative?” Morgan said. He explained that technically, the administration could hypothetically come back with a budget that proposes cutting the entire police department, knowing that it would not be an option that council would approve — and therefore would have to reject — as part of the zero percent increase. “That’s cherry-picking,” he said. “There’s a provision in my draft that says you can’t do that. The percentages have to be pro-rated through all departments.”
“The West Windsor Township Council desires to have realistic alternative budget scenarios for its consideration other than a zero- based budget option and the budget recommended by the administration,” the resolution also states. “The West Windsor Township Council possesses the authority and responsibility for setting township policy pursuant to the Faulkner Act.”
Morgan says the council members are “not experts in the departments,” he said. “We can make a suggestion, but we’re not close enough to make informed decisions about the least negative reductions.” Under the proposal, the administration will have to show council the options, and council can decide which it can tolerate. “That’s the only way we’re going to have an honest set of options.”
“This is good for the community,” Morgan said of the proposal. “It shows we worked harder. Accountability becomes a real issue for us.”
Geevers said that the administration could present an option sheet for further savings, but it should not be mandated.
“The issue for me isn’t about whether or not we’re for or against the zero-percent option,” she said. Having a zero percent option is “something I had supported, but that doesn’t mean I would support forcing the hand of the administration under our form of government.”
