PRINCETON: Panel spells out consolidation savings

By Victoria Hurley-Schubert, Staff Writer
   A savings of about 5 percent of the combined municipal budgets of the Princetons could be saved if there is a full implementation of all recommendations of the Joint Shared Services/Consolidation Commission (JSSCC) should consolidation take place.
   Savings amount to $3.3 million on a combined $60 million budget.
   This means there will be direct property tax impacts, or savings, for homeowners if consolidation happens. All calculations are from a draft of a summary of residential tax savings presented to the JSSCC Tuesday night.
   Savings with will full implementation of consolidation recommendations could be $217 for the average borough property and $273 for the average township property. The average borough homeowner pays $3,222 in municipal taxes on the average property value of $747,665. A township resident pays an average of $3,596 in municipal taxes on an average property values of $826,636. These vales are calculated using current asses values under the 2010 revaluation.
   The tax levy, or amount raised from taxpayers, used in the formula was $9,457,716 for the borough and $20,070,600 for the township. The taxable assesses value for the borough is $2,196,649,214 and the township is $4,617,801,381. The tax rates are .431 for the borough and .435 for the township.
   For a true apples to apples comparison, the committee subtracted the cost of solid waste collection — $468,528 — from the borough’s municipal taxes, since township residents do not have municipal trash collection.
   The current combined state — just adding the borough and township numbers together — has a tax levy of $29,059,788 with a combined assessed value of $6,814,459,595. This results in a revised combined tax rate of .426 per $100 of assessed value.
   For solid waste collection, where the borough has trash collection as part of their taxes and the township does not, the finance subcommittee recommends extending trash collection to the whole consolidated community.
   The cost to implement this recommendation and provide solid waste collection to a combined community would be $1.6 million. When added into the combined tax levy of $29 million, after applying efficiency savings of $3,321,000, the new levy would be $27,387,316 with a revised tax rate of .402 per $100 of assessed value.
   After adjusting the tax levy, the average borough tax bill would be $3,006 for the savings of $217. The average township tax bill would be $3,323, including garbage collection, for a savings of $273.
   There are secondary impacts of consolidation that will affect taxpayers. Secondary impacts include equalization adjustments in school county taxes, operational efficiencies and cost avoidances.
   With the secondary impacts factored in, the average borough property will save an additional $419 and the average township property will save an additional $160. The borough savings come from saving $277 in the regional school taxes, $157 in distribution of county taxes and $8 in county open space taxes. They would pay $23 more for municipal taxes. Township residents would pay $144 more for regional school taxes, $99 more for county tax and $8 more for county open space, but save $400 on their private trash collection and $8 on municipal tax.
   This means a total tax savings of $636 for the average borough homeowner and $433 for the average township homeowner when initial and secondary impacts are factored in.
   These savings would create a new baseline for homeowners and the combined municipal budget would be struck starting from the new tax rate of .402 per $100 of assesses value.
   The equalization will not be a reoccurring savings, and is misleading because it is a one-time adjustment, unlike the savings from consolidation, which would reoccur year after year because of staffing reductions and efficiencies, said Mr. Goldfarb.
   The $217 for borough residents and the $273 for township residents savings from full consolidation would reoccur yearly, whereas the secondary impacts would be a one-time, first-year adjustment for taxpayers. He also said township residents would save more money in the long term by not having to pay for private garbage pick-up.
   These numbers are subject to change as the calculations are fine-tuned through the next few weeks and get to the Division of Community Affairs.
   The financial impacts will be updated for Wednesday’s JSSCC meeting, which begins 7 p.m. at the Township Municipal Complex. The commission will be voting on what to recommend — consolidation or shared services — to the governing bodies.