PRINCETON: Borough struggling to hold tax rate flat

By Lauren Otis, Staff Writer
   Members of Princeton Borough Council continued to stick to a pledge not to increase property taxes, and made progress toward keeping the pledge, despite a warning by the Borough Administrator of possible negative long-term implications to doing so, at a special council budget session Tuesday evening.
   Council agreed not to seek a replacement for a borough police officer who recently resigned, removing about $100,000 from the budget, and tentatively agreed not to purchase three new police vehicles for an approximate $60,000 savings, as they sought to come up with $300,000 in cuts needed for a no-tax-increase municipal budget.
   Council members also backed a 5 percent across-the-board cut in the 2009 operating budgets of joint agencies operated with Princeton Township, but after a lengthy discussion agreed not to vote to dissolve the Human Services Commission and farm out its services to other agencies before giving more thought to a township proposal that a study be conducted on reforming the commission to better serve community needs.
   Borough Administrator Robert Bruschi told council the current 2009 draft budget reflects a $750,000 reduction over last year’s budget, with administration salaries “$32,000 below our salaries in 2007,” and assumes $500,000 worth of new parking utility revenue and increased court fine revenue. The 2009 budget also uses $937,000 of operating surplus, leaving $430,000, he said.
   Of a borough municipal workforce of 140, 15 employees had been impacted so far, some laid off and some with reduced hours and income, Mr. Bruschi said.
   Even so, Mr. Bruschi said, the budget was $300,000 short on the revenue side, and would need a 3-cent tax increase to be balanced.
   He said the $300,000 could be taken from operating or capital surplus to get to a zero-tax-increase budget without significant short-term impact, but the impact was less clear over several years.
   ”I would still recommend you talk to long-term fiscal policy as opposed to the one-year option to go to a zero-percent tax increase,” Mr. Bruschi told council members.
   ”I am very, very concerned we are on a track which is the very opposite of where we wanted to be several years ago, which is building surplus,” said council President Andrew Koontz, who has not supported the zero-tax-increase pledge. “This is one shot,” he said of dipping into surplus in order to not increase taxes.
   Councilman Kevin Wilkes pointed out that two Police Department openings were not being filled, but a third opening resulting from a recent resignation was still budgeted for replacement at an approximate $100,000 salary.
   ”I’d like to propose that the third position also be defunded,” Mr. Wilkes said. Council members unanimously agreed to not fund a replacement to the third police opening.
   ”In the private sector where I work a vehicle isn’t even eligible for retirement until it hits 200,000 miles, we drive them long and hard,” Mr. Wilkes said. He acknowledged that some police vehicles should not be high mileage but said of the current proposal for purchasing three new police vehicles. “I think we ought to just put that on the shelf.”
   Mayor Mildred Trotman said, “I would like to postpone that until we have more information.”
   Councilwoman Barbara Trelstad said there would be a special meeting in April to discuss the borough’s vehicle needs and policies, and Borough Council agreed not to immediately cut funding of the new vehicles.
   Mr. Bruschi said the current draft budget reflected the borough no longer participating in the joint Human Services Commission, at a budgetary savings in excess of $100,000. He said commission functions, including local welfare administration, a summer youth employment program, and the Crosstown senior transportation program would be reassigned to the county, Corner House and the Suzanne Patterson Center respectively without “any negative impact to the community.”
   Council President Andrew Koontz said council had so far cut community services in the budget that no one else would provide, and it would be appropriate to cut services such as welfare which residents were already paying the county to provide.
   ”We have nobody in the (human services) office now who speaks Spanish,” said Councilman Roger Martindell. “Are we really getting $117,000 worth of value?” he said.
   Mr. Martindell said the delivery of human services should be rethought, and the commission refunded in the future if deemed appropriate.
   ”It is not necessary that the government do everything,” Councilman David Goldfarb said.
   Mayor Trotman said she understood the need to make cuts “but it does concern me that anytime cuts are made it seems to be the people who are hit the hardest are the people who need it the most.”
   Mr. Wilkes said there was evidence that “this economic crisis has been well in evidence on the welfare rolls of our town.” He said farming out the commission’s services might reduce cost, but it was not fair to say they would be identical services.
   Ms. Trelstad, Mr. Wilkes and Mayor Trotman all said there was not a lot of support on Township Committee to eliminate the commission, with the township interested instead in taking six months and studying the commission to look for ways it can be updated and upgraded. As a result Borough Council members opted not to commit to eliminate it at their meeting.
   Mr. Brushi told the council that township administrators were “comfortable” with reducing operating budgets of joint agencies by 5 percent, and Borough Council agreed to this course of action.
   Mr. Wilkes asked why the budget called for increasing the borough’s reserve for uncollected taxes by $50,000 to $650,000 in 2008 and $700,000 in 2009.
   ”We are seeing more and more people on our tax rolls that are not paying,” said borough Chief Financial Officer Sandra Webb.