By Greg Forester, Staff Writer
PLAINSBORO — A proposed 2008 budget presented to the Township Committee last week calls for a 1.9-cent increase in the municipal tax rate, as municipal officials deal with a loss of hundreds of thousands of dollars in state aid that was present in last year’s budget.
”It is a budget that provides for the needs of the community in the coming year,” said Mayor Peter Cantu. “We would have been happier if we didn’t have the cut in state aid.”
The $368,679 drop in state aid — a loss of both regular and extraordinary, one-time aid received in 2007 — resulted in fully 1 cent of the total 1.9-cent tax rate increase, according to Township Administrator Robert Sheehan.
If adopted in its current form, the proposed budget increase would mean that a homeowner with a residence assessed at the township average of $397,720 would pay $1,268.73 in municipal taxes, up $75.57 from last year.
”State aid was an important influence,” said Mr. Sheehan. “It has become an increasingly difficult puzzle to piece together.”
The proposed budget totaled $20,829,444, which included an infusion of $3.2 million in municipal surplus funds. That maintenance of surplus funds was important to this year’s budget, Mayor Cantu said. The surplus allowed the township government to keep the tax increase down at the 1.9-cent level.
”Frankly, we have been able to also retain a reasonable level of surplus,” said Mayor Cantu. “That’s important.”
The proposed budget is still under review by the Township Committee. There could be other changes too, according to Mayor Cantu. The changes involve the crucial state-aid numbers that had so large an impact on the proposed budget.
”We are not sure yet about what could happen with the state aid numbers,” the mayor said. “There could be some change.”
Whatever the case, with this year’s state aid numbers, Plainsboro officials said they are preparing for life without the missing aid in years to come.
”We’re bracing for lower levels of state aid in the coming year,” Mr. Sheehan said.
Increases in the 2008 budget stemmed largely from pension and employment-related expenses. In fact, those categories accounted for half of the budget’s total increase over 2007, amounting to $726,500, according to a memo from Mr. Sheehan.
Employee-related expenses account for 61 percent of the total 2008 budget. The budget reflected some small staffing increases, in the form of three positions, including a temporary code enforcement inspector, a machine operator-laborer, and an executive assistant to the mayor, which is a part-time position.
Some revenues that had decreased in previous years have begun to increase again, with township taking in an additional $528,000 in hotel tax revenues, an additional $185,000 in interest on investments and an additional $92,000 in municipal court fines.
The township’s capital budget has a total of $695,000 for road repaving and related work, which includes the start of a proactive road maintenance program that the township had been unable to fund in previous years.
One area that Plainsboro did not see an increase similar to some area-townships was in fuel expenses.
”We really have a modest fleet of vehicles,” Mr. Sheehan said.
Plainsboro officials said they plan on refining the budget over the next month, along with waiting to see if there is a change in the state aid situation.
