By Matt Chiappardi, Staff Writer
HIGHTSTOWN Inspired by an effort in nearby Lawrence to have students at private schools pay a mandatory fee for municipal services, some Borough Council members said this week that they favor looking into the possibility of having a similar regulation with regard to the Peddie School.
The private coeducational boarding school is tax exempt because it is a nonprofit organization. It takes up about one fifth of the 1-square-mile borough and owns about $38.8 million worth of property upon which the borough cannot collect taxes. And that fact has been the focus of criticism from some residents for a long time.
A Peddie spokesman would not comment specifically on the matter, but did e-mail the Herald a list of contributions the school already makes to the borough, including a $55,000 annual contribution to the Fire Department, $477,000 the school spent in 2004 refurbishing the municipal parking lot on Main Street and a number of in-kind donations and volunteer activities.
The idea was broached at Monday’s Borough Council meeting by former Democratic Club President Torry Watkins, who mentioned news coverage of a resolution being considered in Lawrence that would urge state lawmakers to pass regulations to impose municipal-service fees built into the tuition costs of students attending colleges, universities and boarding schools.
Lawrence has both Rider University and the Lawrenceville School, an institution similar to Peddie, within its borders.
That resolution was postponed at the Lawrence Township Council’s meeting Tuesday.
And while a similar resolution did not see an impromptu drafting at Monday’s Borough Council meeting, two council members said now might be the time to at least start talking about it.
New Councilman Dimitri Musing was the first.
”I think there is definitely some validity to this,” Mr. Musing said. “It is time to open the lines of communication with Peddie.”
He was joined by Councilman Walter Sikorski, who, while acknowledging the voluntary contributions the school already makes to the borough, said it might be time to have some sort of mandatory fee assessed to the institution.
”I am willing to meet with Peddie on that issue,” Mr. Sikorski said.
Council President Larry Quattrone, who did not speak about the issue at the meeting, said Wednesday that he does not go so far as supporting a mandatory fee. However, he said he’s open to discussing the prospect and to talking with Peddie officials to urge them to contribute more.
”It’s an interesting concept,” Mr. Quattrone said about a potential fee. “Maybe it’s something that would bring (Peddie) to the bargaining table. A strong borough is in Peddie’s interest. When a parent comes to look at the school, they’re going to bring their children; they look around at the surrounding environment. It doesn’t do Peddie any favors if the borough is struggling.”
Those comments came in the shadow of a preliminary budget proposal at Monday’s meeting that showed a potential 18-cent tax hike and in the midst of warnings from Gov. Chris Christie that the state may be closefisted with aid this year as it wrestles with a $2.2 billion budget deficit.
At least one council member said he opposes the idea of a Peddie fee.
”I don’t support a tax on Peddie, and I don’t think it would pass muster (with the state Legislature) anyway,” Jeff Bond said Wednesday.
Mr. Bond pointed toward Peddie’s contributions and said he believes both the monetary and in-kind donations put it well above other private schools in the county, which number about a dozen.
”Maybe Peddie doesn’t do enough, but they’re doing more than anybody,” he said.
Mr. Bond added the number of students from the borough and East Windsor who go to Peddie is about even with the number of faculty children who attend the East Windsor Regional School District at no cost.
That figure was confirmed by Peddie spokesman Sean Casey, who stated in an e-mail to the Herald that 25 East Windsor and Hightstown residents attend Peddie while 19 children of faculty and staff attend school in the local district.
Mr. Casey also stated Peddie invested $2 million to purchase and refurbish office space on North Main Street as part of the borough’s downtown revitalization efforts, contributed $150,000 to water main improvements on Etra Road and in 2009, spent $600,000 in the borough on goods and services and paid more than $300,000 to the borough in permits and fees relating to construction projects.
The borough could not act alone to assess service fees on the school because state law prohibits municipalities from taxing nonprofit organizations. However, a similar resolution to the one in Lawrence was supported by the state League of Municipalities at its 2009 annual conference.
The league’s executive director, Bill Dressel, has said he hasn’t found any sponsors for such a bill in the state Legislature, but expects to find one soon, according to a published report.
Mayor Bob Patten, a strong supporter of Peddie who has pointed to its contributions in the past, did not respond to a request for comment for this story.
mchiappardi
@centraljersey.com
