CRANBURY: Tax rate may remain stable

By Maria Prato-Gaines, Staff Writer
   CRANBURY — If the Township Committee approves the $12.16 million budget it introduced Monday, it may have accomplished what some thought was the impossible — stabilizing the tax rate.
   The township introduced a budget that is slightly less than last year’s $12.4 million spending plan and calls for a tax rate of 37.2 cents per $100 of assessed valuation. Under that tax rate, the owner of a home assessed at the township of $668,000 can expect to pay about $2,485 in municipal taxes this year, the same as the previous year.
   This year’s budgeting process was no easy task for local officials, who spent days and hours pouring over the numbers, said Denise Marabello, the township’s chief financial officer.
   While the township ended 2008 with a $339,567 capital fund (surplus) balance, it expects to have $81,400 in surplus by the end of the year.
   This year, revenue and appropriations would total 11,345,186.83 each while the amount of revenue to be raised from local taxes would be $6,496,322.24.
   Ms. Marabello said several factors contributed to the decrease, including the township’s efforts to pay its debt as well as the lack of property sales by the municipality, which had boosted that number in the past.
   Although municipal court costs would increase by more than $68,000, Ms. Marabello said this number really doesn’t have much of an impact as it reflects an accounting procedure. Plainsboro, which has an interlocal agreement with Cranbury to handle its court proceedings, transfers money accrued during those proceedings to the township, which in turn, returns those funds to this neighboring municipality.
   As for state aid, township officials are projecting to receive about $2,000 less, $635,576.50, this year.
   On the spending side, salaries and wages would increase in some instances and decrease in others. Some of these changes can be attributed to township officials juggling jobs between various budgets and departments, Ms. Marabello said.
   Overall, salary and wages would increase to $3,146,677 from last year’s $3,112,372.
   With the police salary and wages, recent promotions and contract negotiations have left officials projecting a increase of $2,032,104 from last year’s $1,968,421.
   Committee members also shaved tax collection salary and wages after making the position part time.
   Public Works salary and wages also would drop from $219,835 to $180,294 this year, but with a good explanation, Ms. Marabello said.
   ”We pulled a couple of items out of Public Works and put them into the interlocal (agreement) budget,” she said.
   The Public Employees Retirement System spending would jump from $91,630 to $117,790, but those numbers are generated and mandated by the state, Ms. Marabello said.
   Looking at the Fire Company budget, it would appear the organization lost $55,000 and could receive $35,000 in 2009, however, those numbers can be deceiving, according to township officials. The township actually transferred $55,000 into the fire official’s budget, which would be used for the same purposes as was in the company’s budget, said Christine Smeltzer township administrator.
   ”It’s basically just moving the money around,” she said.
   Interlocal municipal service agreements would increase by approximately $300,000 to $955,139 in 2009, according to the spending plan.
   Not only has the township added interlocal agreements for such services as distribution of rock salt, but one major component of the increase would be an excluded fee to the Monroe Township Utilities Authority, which is expected to be in the range of $170,000 and was categorized under sewer expenses in previous years, Ms. Marabello said.
   Minor changes would occur with the capital improvement fund, which would decrease from $60,000 last year to $50,000 in 2009.
   As for the municipal debt service, that number would decrease from $3.42 million to $1.81 million.
   ”We used the sale from notes to pay down more of the principal last year,” Ms. Marabello said.
   All in all, township officials are pleased with what their hard work has accomplished during this year’s budget season.
   ”They’ve worked hard, page by page and item by item, to keep all expenses down as low as they could, and the result is that they came up with a budget that doesn’t have an increase,” Ms. Smeltzer said.