PLUMSTED: $97K in cuts proposed for municipal budget; no police layoffs

By Joanne Degnan, Staff Writer
   PLUMSTED — The Township Committee has apparently been able to resolve its municipal budget problems without resorting to Police Department layoffs.
   At a special Township Committee meeting on May 18 at New Egypt High School, the governing body voted 5-0 to amend its municipal budget to make $97,153 in cuts. The committee decided that $65,300 would be taken from various Police Department accounts and the rest would come from other departments.
   The reductions were required because voters on April 27 turned down the township’s request for a waiver of the state-mandated 2 percent cap on tax levy increases. The $3.1 million budget originally proposed by the township had already cut municipal spending in every department except police.
   Mayor Ron Dancer said last week that Sgt. Matt Petrecca had put together a cost-saving plan that “averts any layoffs of police officers in Plumsted and also averts any reduction in hours worked by Plumsted police officers.”
   A public hearing and adoption vote on the amended budget was set for Wednesday night, May 25, after The Messenger-Press’ deadline.
   Under the amended budget, the Police Department funding will be reduced by $65,300. This includes $12,300 from the police operating expense account; $10,000 from the overtime account; and $8,000 from holiday pay account.
   The committee also slashed the additional $35,000 that had been included in the police salary and wages line item for the promotion of two part-time officers to full-time status. Those two officers will have to continue as “part-time” employees working 40 hours a week without health benefits, Mayor Dancer said.
   The other 11 officers on the Plumsted police force are classified as full-time employees who receive health benefits.
   The township has submitted an application for a federal COPS (Community Oriented Policing Services) grant in an effort to obtain the funds needed to make the two part-time officers full-time employees, but a federal decision is not expected for several months, township officials said.
   Other township departments will absorb the remaining $31,853 in cuts. The recreation budget, which had already been reduced from $29,000 to $19,000 in the 2011 proposed budget, will be reduced by another $4,000 under the new budget amendment. The municipal court, which is currently open four days a week, will have its operations cut back to three days a week with a part-time court administrator for a savings of $12,500.
   In addition, another $5,100 was slashed from the buildings and grounds operating budget; $2,000 from the Office of Emergency Management; and $5,000 from the salary and wages line in the Finance Department’s budget to reflect the fact that Allentown Borough is now paying a portion of Plumsted CFO June Madden’s salary under a shared services agreement between the two towns.
   Other cuts include $203 from the Finance Department’s operating budget, $800 from the Township Committee’s operating expenses (elected officials are not paid a salary); $600 from the Land Use Board’s operating budget; $300 from the construction office’s operating budget and $1,350 from the budget of the business administrator, who was laid off effective April 1.
   This year Plumsted voters have defeated spending questions related to three separate budgets: the fire budget, the school budget and the municipal budget cap waiver. All three failed budgets then went to the Township Committee for cuts.
   ”The most important number to the taxpayers is the bottom line,” Mayor Dancer said. “The Township Committee reduced the proposed tax increases of the Fire District by 50 percent, reduced the school (tax) increase by 75 percent, and reduced the municipal increase in excess of the 2 percent cap law by 100 percent.”
   Mayor Dancer said the total Plumsted property tax bill, including municipal, school, county and fire district taxes, is projected to increase about 3 cents to $1.56 per $100 in assessed value. This represents a 1.9 percent overall increase, he said.
   ”Plumsted Township is a case in point of how the new tax cap law will keep property taxes from increasing more than 2 percent unless approved by voters,” Mayor Dancer said.