State ballot questions gain broad approval

Area towns back three measures by wide margin

By: Courtney Gross
   Keeping with tradition, New Jersey voters overwhelmingly approved the state’s three ballot questions during Tuesday’s general election.
   The questions centered on allocating funds for property tax relief, preserving open space and improving the state transportation system.
   None of the approved ballot questions raise taxes.
   The first of three questions, approved statewide by a 2-to-1 margin, will commit half of the revenue from the sales tax increase this year to a property tax relief fund.
   The increase, which raised the sales tax by one-cent and broadening the tax to apply to municipal parking garages and health club memberships, among other services, resulted from the summer’s budget debates and weeklong government shutdown.
   As part of the compromise which halted the budgetary deadlock in Trenton, the property tax relief allocation question was placed on Tuesday’s state ballot.
   The second question redirects funding from the corporate business tax toward capital improvements and maintenance of preserved open space in New Jersey, including state parks and wildlife areas. The approval will boost funding each year by $15 million until 2015 and $32 million annually thereafter. Approximately 60 percent of voters statewide approved the increase.
   The final question increases funding for the state’s transportation system by dedicating 10.5 cents per gallon of the motor fuels tax toward system improvements. The current allocation is 9 cents per gallon, and the increase was approved by 59 percent of state voters.
   Compared to statewide averages, most of the Princeton area approved the state’s ballot questions by wider margins.
   Not including provisional ballots, 65 percent of Montgomery voters approved funding for property tax relief, 61 percent approved funding for maintenance of state open space and 63 percent OK’d increased funding for the state transportation system.
   In Plainsboro, 68 percent approved the ballot question on the state property tax and the increased funding for the transportation system, while 69 percent approved funding for state parks.
   Princeton Borough voters approved property tax relief approximately 2-to-1, and by 3-to-1 margins for the other two measures.
   Princeton Township voters approved property tax relief by 65 percent, open space maintenance by 71 percent and transportation system funding by 76 percent.
   Rocky Hill approved property tax relief by 59 percent, open space funding by 62 percent and increased transportation system funding by 68 percent.
   West Windsor voters also overwhelming approved the state’s ballot questions with 72 percent of voters approving property tax relief, 69 percent approving funding for open space maintenance and 73 percent giving the go-ahead for increased transportation funding.