West Windsor posted its proposed municipal and capital budgets on the town’s website on February 6. As in the past, I have been going over these and will have a few suggestions to make.
But first, I would like to ask our Council to refrain from formally introducing the budget at the upcoming Tuesday, February 19, business meeting. The reason is that “introduction” also means “approval” in state budget parlance — in other words, that Council agrees with the budget. Although actual “adoption” comes only at least two weeks later, after a public hearing at a business meeting, it isn’t easy to make changes after the budget is introduced, or even after the hearing itself.
The state Department of Community Affairs, in its Local Finance Notice of January 4, has given us until Friday, March 15, to complete the introduction/approval process. We should take advantage of that time frame to consider any changes that might be desirable. I’m therefore proposing that introduction be postponed until the Monday, March 4, business meeting, and that Council schedule at least one informal discussion session before then to allow the public time to give appropriate input to both Council and the Administration.
This was the procedure in many past years, but unfortunately it was omitted in 2012. If Council and the Administration are serious about transparency, they should reinstitute this process.
In any case, I can at least report that significant progress has finally been made in the Saga of the Fire Hydrants. As readers will be aware, I made my own survey of the hydrants last year, in addition to studying the costs associated with their annual inspection and maintenance by New Jersey American Water. For the last several years we have been appropriating $895,000 in line item 10554281, Fire Hydrant Services, but in 2011 we paid just slightly over $742,000. This amount reflects the actual number of public hydrants, 777 at present. The rest of the appropriation has always been left over, and I’ve been advised that it’s automatically transferred at the end of every year into the fund balance, which now stands at about $7 million.
Last December 10 Council took notice of this overage and repurposed the excess 2012 money into several other accounts. For 2013, the Administration has reduced the recommended appropriation by $100,000, bringing it down to $795,000. This should be reduced by another $50,000 to reflect reality. At an annual cost of about $950 per hydrant, this would cover nearly 53 new hydrants for all of 2013, which is clearly not going to happen.
The Administration continually talks about applying “best practices.” In line with this, I would ask that specific line items not be intentionally “padded” to supply extra funds that might be needed for other areas later in the year, or to simply put taxpayer-derived money back into the general kitty. This maneuver is misleading to the public and should be discontinued. Granted that unforeseen circumstances can and do arise during the year, let’s budget as realistically as we can.
John A. Church
West Windsor
