BORDENTOWN TOWNSHIP: Township Committee OKs budget with cuts

By Amber Cox
   BORDENTOWN TOWNSHIP — The Township Committee unanimously adopted its final 2011-12 budget on May 18.
   The township had to make a number of cuts to its original budget to cover the $540,822 deficit after its effort to exceed to the 2 percent state-mandated spending limit was rejected by voters.
   A special referendum to raise that amount was defeated April 27 by a vote of 816-283.
   Residents assessed at the average $302,300 would have paid a proposed 41 cents per $100 assessed value for a total of $1,238.20 in municipal taxes, an increase of $151.
   The budget was originally introduced at $10.7 million with a tax levy of $6.2 million. It is now a total budget of $10.1 million with a tax levy of $5.6 million.
   The township tax rate is now proposed at 37.8 cents per $100 of assessed value for a total of $1,142.69 in municipal taxes.
   A number of positions throughout the township are being cut along with discretionary spending to make up for the deficit. Effective July 1:
   • Three Public Works laborers, one full time and two part time will be laid off to save the township $36,948;
   • All four dispatchers from the Police Department are being laid off and the township is switching to the county dispatching service, Central Communications, where those dispatchers will be offered jobs, for a savings of $99,935;
   • A court position is not being replaced for a savings of $26,738;
   • The position of code enforcement officer, who is retiring, is not being replaced for a savings of $5,000;
   • All nonemergency overtime will be stopped.
   Discretionary spending will include cutting some funds for the Senior Center, community events and others, and will save the township $12,475.
   The dispatchers that are being laid off will be offered jobs at Central Communications.
   Committeeman Bruce Hill said this was probably one of the hardest budgets the township had had to work on in a long time.
   ”The residents came out and votes the way they voted and as an elected official you have to look at that,” he said.
   ”You have to keep the constituents in mind because after all we are elected to represent our constituents and do what they want whether I like it or I don’t.
   ”I’m not happy with our municipal budget at all. I would have loved to see the referendum go through, so that we didn’t lose the quality of people that we have in our township.
   It’s with deep sadness that I have to vote in the affirmative for this budget, even though I’m not happy with it, but it is what it is.