By: centraljersey.com
Allison Musante
Staff Writer
WEST WINDSOR – The Township Council is seeking to "squeeze blood out of a turnip," as Vice President Diane Ciccone said, to further trim spending in the $37.4 million budget, which proposes raising the tax levy by 5.3 percent.
As it stands, the taxpayers would foot about $22 million, up by $1.1 million from last year. But Mayor Shing-Fu Hsueh said the .9 percent increase is the lowest the township has seen in the past 17 years.
"We were able to keep within the cap and still be a full-service township and continue to get a AAA bond rating, which saves the taxpayers money for capital improvements," he said.
The budget meets the state’s 2 percent cap because of several exclusions, including about $120,000 in debt service and $91,000 to the Stonybrook Regional Sewerage Authority. The township must also pay $2.1 million in pension contribution, up 25 percent from last year.
After a discussion at its Monday night meeting, the council asked Administrator Bob Hary to analyze the potential savings of reducing overtime pay and hiring more per diem employees than full-time in certain areas, such as code enforcement. He will report his findings at the next meeting on Monday.
Since the budget has been proposed, if the council wants to see further cuts, it has to target specific areas and cannot simply ask the administration to cut an arbitrary dollar amount, according to Mr. Hary.
During the council’s budget workshop in February, the council came up with $1.8 million in savings from cutting, hypothetically, 5 percent from the budget.
Its suggestions included cutting expenses in refuse collection and street lighting services, closing the arts council, closing the senior center, eliminating the environmental commission budget, eliminating shared service agreement with the school bard for cable service and eliminating flu vaccines.
Mr. Hary said the administration does not recommend making any of these cuts in the budget.
The budget, which is a $358,000 increase from last year, would raise the municipal tax rate by about two and a half cents to 37 cents. For the average household at an assessed value of about $527,000, the municipal tax would be about $1,950, which is about $108 higher than last year.
Three staff jobs were cut in proposed budget: a full-time employee in the division of Land Use and two part-time employees of the divisions of Code Enforcement and Senior Social Services.
Mr. Hary said two were lost to attrition – positions that were vacated and not refilled. The full-time animal control officer was also cut by the council’s decision to share services with East Windsor.
"It wasn’t a true layoff," Mr. Hary said. "We are taking that salary and still providing the service."
The budget proposes raising salaries and wages by about 1 percent from last year.

