It’s been said that money is like an arrow; it doesn’t do you any good until you get rid of it. Some people tend to keep their financial bows at full stretch, never releasing an arrow, saving their money, and adding to it forever. When it comes to the money that West Windsor’s taxpayers have been putting into the town’s fund balance year after year, now amounting to over $7 million, it seems that our mayor belongs to the saver group. He doesn’t want to give any of it back to those who put it in there in the first place, even when times are tough and people could use some tax relief. The fund balance fluctuates during any given year, but normally it’s replenished and sometimes even increased by operating revenues during the year, as happened in 2011.
We’re not asking for much. As shown by a comparison with Plainsboro (AAA rated by Standard & Poor’s with a fund balance of about $5 million), West Windsor should be able to let its fund balance gradually drop to $6 million — or lower — without risking its AAA rating.
And for even more tax relief, let’s not reserve all the $2 million we’re about to receive in new liquor license revenue for renovating the municipal building, which does need doing. This is a long-term capital expense that will benefit future residents, and it ought to be treated as such. Let’s get several bids on what needs to be done, and then decide how much to bond.
But what if our rating should ever drop to AA, which is termed “very strong”? The mayor would probably consider this to be a terrible catastrophe, but somehow I think we would survive just fine.
John A. Church
West Windsor
