On Monday evening, March 26, it was encouraging to see that four members of West Windsor Town Council were in agreement that the administration’s proposed 2012 budget should be modified. Only Mr. Khanna disagreed. Among the four, there was considerable discussion about how much to change it, not whether to change it.
Ms. Geevers moved to increase the projected appropriations by $463,000 to achieve the same municipal tax rate as 2011, or 36.9 cents per $100 of assessed value. This would be achieved by several measures, including a $100,000 increase in the amount taken from the fund balance, which was more than $7,000,000 at the beginning of 2012.
She also proposed to use some of the $2 million in upcoming liquor license fees for current expenses, rather than holding all of it back for improvements to the municipal building, which could be at least partially bonded. The motion was seconded by Mr. Maher. After considerable discussion, it passed by a vote of 3 to 2, Mr. Borek and Mr. Khanna dissenting. Mr. Borek thought that the appropriation increase should be $400,000 rather than $463,000, but otherwise was on board with the general idea.
I discussed the fund balance earlier in the meeting and compared our situation with Plainsboro’s. Both towns have an AAA rating from Standard and Poor’s, but Plainsboro has historically had a much lower fund balance than West Windsor. At the beginning of 2011, its balance was $4.66 million versus $6.85 million for us. The two towns are otherwise very similar financially, though we do have about an 18 percent higher population. Therefore I believe we could return considerably more than $100,000 of this back to the taxpayers this year and not suffer any consequences to our bond rating.
However, at least we’re now seeing some progress in moderating the relentless upward pressure on our municipal tax rate.
I look forward to the administration’s agreeing with this consensus in time for the budget’s adoption in mid-April.
John A. Church
