LAMBERTVILLE: Mayors share cap woes with Christie

By Linda Seida, Staff Writer
   LAMBERTVILLE — The city’s mayor was one of 35 mayors from across New Jersey who came together to ask the governor for help in meeting a looming 2-percent tax cap that goes into effect Jan. 1.
   Mayor David Del Vecchio and his counterparts from other municipalities sought relief from mandated costs that would limit their ability to contain property taxes within the new cap, which will be half of the 4 percent cap now in effect.
   ”Right now, there is nothing in the law that recognizes the new cap,” Mayor Del Vecchio said. The allowable 2-percent cap would “tie up all available funds.”
   The problem affects Democrats as well as Republicans, suburban towns as well as rural communities. They were all represented in the 35-member group that went to Trenton Sept. 30, Mayor Del Vecchio said.
   He said he and the other mayors met with Gov. Chris Christie and several legislators.
   He said they focused primarily on four issues, the main problems affecting Lambertville and the other towns: Binding arbitration reform, civil service reform, pension and benefit reform and a lower cap on sick-day benefits.
   The reforms are part of the governor’s proposed “municipal toolkit,” intended to help curb property taxes.
   ”We said when we organized we would probably have to do this two or three times,” Mayor Del Vecchio said of the mayors’ group. “Nothing ever happens in a day, and we’re prepared to do that.”
   The new cap is months away from being instituted, but it is already having an impact as towns struggle to prepare their budgets.
   In Lambertville, it has led to talks between the city and the union that represents the city’s 10 full-time police officers. The city is seeking givebacks, and has sent a layoff notice to the union saying that one officer may have to be laid off.
   The new cap would restrict the city’s budget increase in 2011 to about $35,000, the mayor has said.