BORDENTOWN TOWNSHIP: Township eyes 5-cent tax rate hike

By Amber Cox
   BORDENTOWN TOWNSHIP — The average homeowner would pay an additional $151 in municipal taxes if the proposed 2011-12 township budget becomes final.
   The Township Committee plans to meet today, Thursday, at 7 p.m. to introduce the budget, which would not receive final approval vote until after the April 27 referendum on exceeding the 2 percent state-mandated cap, according to Mayor Michael Dauber.
   The proposed $10.5 million budget has a tax levy of $6.1 million, which includes the approval of a referendum question to exceed the 2 percent state-mandated cap to deal with the township’s $540,333 deficit.
   Residents assessed at the average $302,000 would pay a proposed 41 cents per $100 assessed for a total of $1,238.20 in municipal taxes. The current tax rate is 36 cents.
   Mayor Dauber at the March 22 Township Committee meeting said he knows some people will find the proposed tax rate high but asked them to remember what they are getting for that amount.
   ”What we’re trying to explain to the public, is what you get out of the money you pay for the general purpose tax (municipal tax) in the township,” he said. “It provides you police, Public Works, EMS, fire, all of those things come out of that. We have $5.3 million in mandatory expenditures. Over half of our budget is mandatory expenditures.”
   Committeeman Jason Medina said there are a number of things the township should be doing to reduce the overall deficit number.
   ”There are definitely opportunities that have been missed in this budget to reduce that overall deficit and to bring that overall tax rate somewhat down,” he said.
   Mayor Dauber said the budget that was presented to the Township Committee “was made by the people who work in the township every day.”
   ”This is what they presented to us for what they would need to run the township effectively and get the services that we’re getting today,” he said. “Without that money we will be reducing some services, that’s why it’s going to be up to the voters to decide if they want those services,” he said in reference to the special referendum question on the ballot for the April 27.
   However, the township is in the middle of a feasibility study for the Police Department to merge with Bordentown City.
   ”The first thing the consultant’s said was that we are way understaffed in our Police Department,” Committeeman Bruce Hill said. “For the amount of calls that we have and the amount of officers that we have, we are understaffed.”
   A meeting to discuss the Police Department merger is tentatively scheduled for May 5.
   ”The consultant who did the police study is going to have a public meeting, private meetings with the governing bodies and we are looking at different avenues for shared services to reduce the cost overall,” Mayor Dauber said.
   Mr. Hill said the Police Department is working without a contract and didn’t take raises last year, along with the rest of the staff in the township. Mr. Hill said residents need to look at the separate areas of their tax bill, not the overall total number.
   ”Taxes are out of control,” he said. “If you look at what the school board is going to do at their next school board election, they’re going to raise taxation by $1 million, not for the kids, but for teachers’ raises. I’m telling everybody to vote it down because $1 million for raises is ridiculous.”
   Mr. Hill said a number of cuts have been made in the township over the years. Currently, the Public Works Department has only 11 employees and trucks that date back to 1993. He said the township didn’t do the “deed” that should have been done in past years, “that is, we should have raised taxes at least a penny a year.”
   ”Then we wouldn’t be here,” he said. “If we did that, we wouldn’t be having this conversation today. Remember this, once you take things out of the budget, you don’t get them back.
   ”I told Gov. Christie point blank that I would be happy making $2 an hour, but when you make $7 an hour and it costs $15 an hour to live, something is wrong with that picture, and it’s broke.”
   Mr. Hill also said the township began using shared services before the “state even thought about shared services.” For example, both Bordentowns share the Municipal Court.
   ”Once we get the (police) feasibility study done and we start implementing some of the programs, you’re going to see a cost savings there,” he said.
   Residents asked the committee why it wasn’t possible for it to stay within the proposed 2 percent cap.
   ”There are only certain items that are going to 2 percent, there are other items that are outside that cap that are uncontrollable by the township,” Mayor Dauber said. “There’s health insurance costs, there’s fuel oil, there are all of these other expenses that are outside the cap. The approach we decided to take this year is we’re putting that question to the taxpayers. You have the option of saying yes or no. The township could have come up here and cut a bunch of things out to stay within the 2 percent cap and you wouldn’t have a say.”
   Mr. Medina said it would be possible to present a budget that stays within the 2 percent cap, but it would be unrealistic for this year.
   ”I think that what we can do is if we do go out for a referendum, present a number that’s more reasonable to residents,” he said. “We have this deficit that we’re facing and in looking through this budget, what should have been instituted in the beginning of the year was a hiring freeze.”
   Mr. Medina also said he thinks that the dispatch unit for the Police Department should be moved to Central Communications, the county 9-1-1 Public Safety Answering Point. According to its website it serves all municipalities in the county except for one.
   ”This is by far the one shared service opportunity that we’ve either overlooked or we really haven’t explored in great detail,” he said. “Every municipality that has done so has realized a significant cost savings. There really hasn’t been any detriment to public safety as a result of that. I think the county does a great job. They already handle our EMS and fire calls, why not handle our police calls.”
   However, Mr. Medina said there are other things the township could do to reduce costs like cutting the number of people working for the dispatch unit or implementing furlough days for all employees in the township.
   ”Personally, I think that employees are going to be more receptive to that (furlough days) than facing the prospect of getting laid off,” he said. “Bottom line, I think that there are opportunities to further reduce costs and bring that overall deficit number done. Coming in within the 2 percent is going to be extremely difficult but I think that we can certainly, as it stands now, reduce that overall number.”
   Mr. Hill said he does not want to raise taxes in the township but there is really nothing else for the committee to do.
   ”I’m a taxpayer, too,” Mr. Hill said. “I don’t like to raise taxes, not at all, none of use like to raise taxes. But the thing of it is, this township cannot keep going at the same pace that it’s going, because eventually we’re going to have nothing.”