Tax burden drives debate among Montgomery candidates

Two incumbents, two challengers seek a pair of seats on Township Committee

By: Jake Uitti
   MONTGOMERY — The four candidates running for the two open seats on the Montgomery Township Committee all said Wednesday they are sensitive to the property-tax burden on residents, seemingly the central issue in the campaign.
   The candidates — Republican incumbent Mark Caliguire and running mate Walter Geslak and Democratic incumbent Cecilia Xie Birge and running mate Brad Fay — suggested ways in which changes could be made to ease the property-tax burden during an appearance before The Packet’s editorial board.
   Mr. Caliguire, who is seeking his second full term on the Township Committee, said when preparing the municipal budget the governing body needs to cut costs wherever it can.
   "We have customers, they’re the taxpayers. We need to do a good job for them," he said, adding that he was happy with the way the budget process went this year.
   "We all sat down and said there can’t be a budget increase," Mr. Caliguire said.
   Mr. Geslak criticized the four Democrats on the committee who voted to approve the restoration of Sylvan Lake, with Mr. Caliguire dissenting. The 7-acre lake is located on the former North Princeton Developmental Center property.
   "I would have voted against it," Mr. Geslak said. "That’s $5.5 million that’s going to go into the capital budget."
   He added that large expenditures such as the lake restoration are not the only ones that hurt taxpayers. "There is not gross mismanagement in this town," he said, "but it’s the pennies that are killing us."
   Ms. Birge, who was elected to her first term in 2003, defended her vote for the lake’s restoration.
   "We gathered 30 people in the community from all walks of life," she explained. "We said, ‘Here is a blank sheet of paper, five years down the road what would you like to see (at NPDC)?’ Everybody talked about the lake."
   She continued, "The lake will add a lot of value beyond the $5.5 million to the entire site, to the entire community," noting it is an amenity that is attractive to potential redevelopers.
   Mr. Caliguire said the committee should have waited on the lake restoration.
   Mr. Fay argued that municipal spending is not the cause of rising property taxes in the township. He said taxes are going up due primarily to school and county spending.
   Mr. Fay said the township should work on shared services agreements, as well as lobby in Trenton for more funding for the schools.
   "This is the time to be involved," said Mr. Fay. "We need to go further than the joint task force (of the Board of Education and Township Committee). We need to retain some professional help to help with our efforts to lobby Trenton."
   The candidates discussed the strategy of offsetting high property taxes by bringing in so-called "clean ratables" — taxable properties that do not produce the schoolchildren whose education is so costly to the township.
   Ms. Birge warned, however, against a "commercial ratable chase," noting that overemphasis on commercial development would represent "a quality-of-life issue in Montgomery."
   Ms. Birge said she supports the Madison Marquette shopping center north of Princeton Airport, known as Montgomery Promenade, "because it will bring in a lot of services to the township."
   And she said the township, in looking ahead, should be focused on efficiency when addressing the interests of the community.
   Mr. Caliguire also emphasized the need for efficiency. "I think Montgomery is going to have to start thinking out of the box," he said. "There are a lot of services that overlap when it comes to the county, state and municipal government."
   Mr. Caliguire noted, for example, that when it snows in Montgomery, there are county plows coming down for county roads, state plows coming down for state roads and municipal plows for municipal roads.
   "We can’t afford to do that stuff anymore," he said, noting the financial problems in the state that often trickle down to the municipal level.
   Another problem facing the township is traffic.
   Mr. Geslak argued that Montgomery needs to work regionally with its neighbors to the north and south.
   "Traffic on Route 206 isn’t just Montgomery’s," he said. "We need to start looking (at the problem) regionally."
   Ms. Birge said the township has made significant progress in terms of the battle over the routing of the Hillsborough Bypass, a project that many officials argue will add traffic volume to the township and surrounding areas.
   "Since I was elected, our position hasn’t changed," Ms. Birge said. "We are not against the bypass but we are against the termination point that ends on Belle Mead-Griggstown Road near our firehouse, cutting Pike Run in half."
   Ms. Birge argued that the bypass is not just a Pike Run issue. Mr. Caliguire agreed, saying the bypass is an issue that will affect all of Montgomery.
   Mr. Fay said he thinks the township is going in the right direction with small, doable projects, such as the loop road by the Sunoco gas station on the Princeton Township border.
   "Traffic help and open space are important, long-term investments," Mr. Fay said. "They improve the quality of life."
   Mr. Caliguire added that he hopes to see improvements to the Route 206-518 intersection in the near future.
   Mr. Caliguire, who is the co-president and co-chief executive officer of a firm that owns several companies that create paper products for consumer sales, has lived in Montgomery since 1997. He is a graduate of Cornell University and has a law degree from Georgetown University.
   Mr. Geslak, who owns a manufacturing company in New Brunswick that manufactures pressure washers and cleaning detergents, has lived in the township for three years and is a graduate of Babson College. He has a master’s degree in technical management from Stevens Institute of Technology.
   Ms. Birge, who has worked as a financial analyst since moving to the United States from Beijing, where she grew up, has lived in the township since 2001 — the same year she became a citizen — and is a graduate of Bryn Mawr College.
   Mr. Fay, who co-founded his own market research company, has lived in the township for seven years and was the president of the township’s historical society. He graduated from Colby College and received a master’s from the University of Connecticut.