CANDIDATES FORUM, Oct. 20
Mark Caliguire
Republican candidate, Montgomery Township Committee
I want to thank the people of Montgomery for allowing me the honor of serving on the Township Committee these past few years. I hope I have lived up to the trust you have placed in me. In all matters, I have put the interests of Montgomery first and, as the only Republican on the Township Committee, I have worked cooperatively with my Democratic colleagues on many issues affecting the lives of Montgomery residents.
But most importantly, I have not shied away from voting my conscience, attempting to be a voice for fiscal accountability even when that means being on the losing end of a 4-1 vote.
Although most of the issues the Township Committee considers are resolved unanimously, and in a collegial manner, I have always maintained that the voters are best served when all opinions are considered and all voices heard. The issues on which I most frequently part company with my colleagues are matters of budgets and debt levels. I do believe that government in New Jersey at every level - needs to do more with less because there is a direct correlation between government spending and taxes. Even if we balance our budgets by borrowing in the short term or drawing down surpluses, in the end taxpayers will pay for government spending. When government over-spends, eventually taxes do go up.
So I will continue to vote for realistic spending and debt levels and look for creative ways to do more with less money including sharing services with Montgomery’s schools and Somerset County. With that in mind, this past year I authored and worked to pass a savings and efficiency incentive plan for municipal employees, the effective implementation of which should result in reduced spending
I look forward to working on the redevelopment of the NPDC site (Skillman Village). That project represents a tremendous opportunity for a true community, recreation and civic center but, if mismanaged, could become a financial albatross. While we made the best deal we could when we purchased the property from the state, it was not a perfect deal, and that leaves us very little room for error in the redevelopment process. We need to attract enough ratables to offset a significant portion of the purchase price without allowing more development than is appropriate for the site. We will need to make careful decisions and closely monitor both the clean-up process and redevelopment.
I will continue to support the efforts Montgomery has made to work with state, county and Hillsborough officials for a realignment of the proposed Hillsborough Bypass to spare our residential neighborhoods and main roads from the additional traffic gridlock the Department of Transportation’s current plan would create.
I will also continue to support our excellent open-space program that, with bipartisan support over the years, has been successful in preserving over one-third of our town as either public or private open space.
Montgomery is a unique and wonderful place to live. With your support, I will do my best to keep it both livable and affordable.
Brad Fay
Democratic candidate, Montgomery Township Committee
In Montgomery, our municipal taxes are stable, our debts are well-managed and we have first-rate financial planning tools. So how can it be that property taxes are so high, at more than $11,000 on the average home?
The fact is that just 10 percent of your tax bill covers municipal activities such as police, roads, parks and recreation, open space, etc. Most of the taxes we pay go to Somerset County or to our school system, which is chronically under-funded by the State of New Jersey. To reduce taxes significantly, it’s going to take cooperation at the local level between the township and school board, a lobbying effort aimed at Trenton and policies that encourage empty nesters and seniors to continue to live here.
Taxes associated with our schools are an especially difficult burden for Montgomery residents. Montgomery’s schools receive very little state funding about 10 percent of our school budget is paid by the state, compared to more than 40 percent of the average school budget in New Jersey. If our schools were funded at the level of the average district, the typical tax bill in Montgomery would be about $3,000 lower.
New Jersey’s education funding formula is bad public policy. It creates revolving-door "super districts" that make financial sense only for affluent families with school-aged children. It encourages couples to leave Montgomery as soon as their children graduate. The result is less economic and life-stage diversity than is needed for a well-balanced community.
Which leads us to the other major driver of property taxes lots of students relative to our tax base. Montgomery has 65 enrolled students per 100 households, compared to the state average of about 45. Our taxpayers are responsible for educating almost 50 percent more students than taxpayers elsewhere in the state. If this were not the case, the typical homeowner’s tax bill would be $2,500 lower.
These two related issues, state funding and demographics, are the main causes of our high property taxes. What can we do?
While the Board of Education, not the Township Committee, is responsible for the school budget, the two bodies must work together to solve a problem that is largely made in Trenton. They should continue finding ways to save money by sharing services, and they should together lobby the state for a better deal on funding, even if our odds of success are long. That means retaining legislative assistance, and identifying and joining with other towns facing similar problems.
Second, we need to address our demographic imbalance. We must continue to carefully manage residential development. We also should encourage our seniors to stay here by providing quality-of-life services at the senior center, transportation assistance, and by helping all our qualified seniors sign up for the state’s "senior freeze" property-tax reimbursement.
Solutions won’t be easy, but we’ll have a greater chance of success if we focus on the real problems. With your support on Nov. 7, I will work hard to find real solutions to high property taxes.

