I urge the Administration and Town Council to push back harder on the Township Departments’ attempts to pad the budget. I understand the need to provide for unexpected events, but I believe there is much that can be cut from the budget without touching personnel or compensation.
Take snow removal as an example. The departmental request of $243,000 for operating expenditures and overtime pay for 2012 was approved without amendment by the Administration. This is the same level of expenditure charged in 2011 and 2010 and only $14,000 less than in 2009 –– the budgets that bracketed two of the worst snow years on record. Since we have had few snow events this winter, the departmental request for the service/maintenance line item was slashed by $44,000, or 36 percent. Instead of cutting the overall snow removal budget, however, the department asked for a $33,000 increase –– a 70 percent jump –– in the budget for salt and sand. ($10,000 was budgeted to pay a reimbursement bill, which is fine.) I find this increased expenditure for salt and sand completely unnecessary since the Township used so little this past winter.
While I appreciate the humor in using the snow removal budget as a “slush fund” to cover future shortfalls, I believe the taxpayers of West Windsor deserve better. We already have a snow removal reserve of more than $400,000. That’s at least 60 percent more than the spending that actually occurred for operations during the tough winters of 2009-’10 and 2010-’11!
The Mayor has trumpeted the fact that the 2012 budget is $13,000 less than 2011’s. He could easily turn it into a savings of $46,000 by cutting the expenditure on salt and sand to 2011’s level. How many other items in this budget are padded in similar fashion? The Township needs to look not only at the budget, but also at all the pots of money set up as reserves for a rainy –– or snowy –– day.
James Solloway
5 Monroe Drive, West Windsor
