Insurance, salary hikes focus for Princeton joint budgets

Princeton Borough and Princeton Township officials review spending plans.

By: David Campbell
   It was a recurring leitmotif in Princeton Borough and Princeton Township’s joint budget talks Tuesday night: insurance, salaries and wages.
   During a year of unprecedented belt-tightening by local and state governments, these are what are driving budget increases for Princeton’s 16 joint agencies, the business administrators for both municipalities said.
   For example, Princeton Animal Control’s budget is up $6,099 from the $67,769 budgeted last year. The bulk of the increase is due to the insurance portion of the budget, which is up $4,748. The remainder of the increase is attributed to salary and wage costs, according to municipal documents.
   Similar conditions are driving budget increases for other departments — the fire, first aid and health departments, to name a few — but with salaries and wages constituting the main cost driver and insurance costs close behind.
   New capital budgeting across the board this year was minimal or non-existent, and elected officials on the Borough Council and the Township Committee approved most capital and operating budgets with only a few questions or concerns.
   But there were a handful of cost-cutting skirmishes Tuesday night, notably over municipal spending on Corner House, Princeton’s nonprofit counseling center for teens and their families, and TV30, the community cable channel administered through the Joint Princeton Cable Television Committee.
   Township Administrator James Pascale, who reportedly has worked especially hard this year to minimize cost increases when possible, found himself in the position of defending Corner House’s requested budget increase of $28,138 from the $202,008 budgeted last year.
   The township administrator said Corner House officials have "stepped up to the plate" in preparing a lean budget in light of fiscal constraints.
   The majority of the increase is associated with salary and wage portions of the budget, with the remaining increase attributable to rising insurance costs, according to budget documents.
   Borough Councilman David Goldfarb said the agency has proved itself capable of raising money through its foundation, and questioned the need for the increase out of concern, he indicated, for Princeton residents hard hit by the tax burden.
   Township Deputy Mayor William Enslin said Corner House was not "a cash cow to milk," adding, "This agency has done an outstanding job and we should not nickel-and-dime it, we should support it."
   In defense of his agency’s spending plan, Corner House Executive Director Gary DeBlasio said, "When there’s a crisis in this community, we are the agency people turn to."
   Both governing bodies approved the Corner House budget with an expectation of funding help from Princeton University, with Mr. Goldfarb the only dissenting vote.
   Mr. Goldfarb also raised concerns over spending for TV30 under the cable TV committee’s budget, which is down $1,494 from the $49,348 budgeted last year.
   The councilman questioned the spending of thousands of dollars "basically to support hobbyists," and suggested that, were the cable channel shut down, few in Princeton would notice.
   Citing a new documentary by TV30 on the Delaware & Raritan Canal and its relationship to Princeton’s development, among other examples, township Mayor Phyllis Marchand said, "This is just the beginning of a wonderful network for the community," and said she took issue with using subscriber fees to reduce taxes.
   Township Committeeman Bernard Miller said, "You can turn on TV30 and see programming that is unique to the Princeton community."
   The governing bodies approved the cable TV budget, again with Mr. Goldfarb casting the lone dissenting vote.
   The council and committee also approved a $258,144 joint budget for the Human Services Department, which is up $74,514 from last year in part through combining the Summer Youth Program budget with Human Services.
   The merger was to provide greater flexibility in running Crosstown 62, a transportation program for seniors that officials said is oversubscribed and under financial duress.
   The youth program, which is reportedly under-subscribed, is not expected to suffer from the merger, said Cynthia Mendez, director of Human Services.