Budget at top of Borough Council agenda

Adoption of $22.9 million spending plan could be delayed until June

By: Kara Fitzpatrick
   The 2006 municipal budget tops tonight’s Princeton Borough Council agenda — but a final decision on the spending plan may be put off until next month.
   Adoption of the budget hinges on the outcome of Monday’s meeting of the Princeton Township Committee, which included consideration of the township’s proposed $30.9 budget.
   Although the borough’s proposed $22.9 million budget was slated for adoption this week, a joint budget hearing last week between the Borough Council and the Township Committee — at which spending plans for the library and the Health Department were in dispute — could delay its approval until early June, Borough Administrator Robert Bruschi said.
   Depending on the significance of the alterations to the two joint budgets in question, the Borough Council may consider approval tonight. But, Mr. Bruschi said, if changes to the introduced plan are consequential, the budget will have to be reintroduced, and an additional public hearing will have to be held, prior to its adoption.
   "It’s going to boil down to how modest the recommended changes are," Mr. Bruschi said.
   An inconclusive discussion at last week’s joint budget hearings regarding the use of capital funds to purchase library materials, including books, caused officials to delay a decision regarding the library’s spending plan. Members of the Township Committee were opposed to categorizing books as a capital expenditure, while Borough Council members said the municipality’s taxpayers could not be expected to absorb the increase in the operating budget.
   Because of confusion over figures presented at the joint meeting by Health Commission Chairwoman Susan Kapoor and municipal administrators, a decision was also deferred on the Health Department budget.
   The spending plan that was introduced by the Borough Council in March would require a tax increase of 5 cents to 94 cents per $100 of assessed property value. Under the proposed budget, the owner of a home assessed at the borough average of $350,000 would pay $3,290 in municipal taxes, up $175 from last year.
   Tonight’s meeting is scheduled to begin at 7:30 at Borough Hall.