By Charley Falkenburg, Staff Writer
WEST WINDSOR After a lengthy debate on March 26, the Township Council passed a last-minute motion by a 3-to-2 vote that would give residents a zero tax increase in the proposed 2012-2013 budget.
Councilman George Borek and Council President Kamal Khanna voted in opposition. The projected $37.7 million budget would be reduced by 1.86 percent by tapping $200,000 from both liquor license revenue and fund balance in addition to cutting $63,000 from line items.
The decision was reached after much discussion during which Councilman Bryan Maher raised his voice repeatedly during exchanges with administration officials and Mr. Khanna.
The dispute was sparked when Mr. Khanna commended the projected budget for only having a 1.86- percent increase after coming from a 4 percent cap.
“This is the best budget the administration has put together and ýPage=008 Column=001 OK,0015.00þ
they did the best they could with the resources they had,” he added. “I personally think this is a damn good budget.”
Mr. Maher emphasized the need to cut the budget to give residents tax relief. He repeated potential solutions, which included cutting $170,000 worth of line items, raising anticipated revenue for construction code fees and using half of the $2 million liquor license revenue for tax relief by allocating $350,000 annually over three years.
Mr. Khanna was open to cutting line items, but was strongly opposed to the other two options. He added that anticipating higher revenue would be dangerous
Using one-time revenue to reduce taxes might cause a bigger tax spike the next year something that deviates from West Windsor’s long-
term financial plan. In 2010, the council used liquor license revenues to reduce taxes, which created a bigger tax increase last year.
“It’s wrong and it’s irresponsible,” said Mr. Khanna. “The decision we make here affects 27,000 people we don’t want to make decisions we will regret six months or a year from now.”
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Mr. Maher questioned the council president’s involvement in the process.
“There’s a new sheriff in town,” he said. “If you want to buy what the mayor is selling hook, line and sinker you go ahead, but I’m not.”
After being interrupted by Mr. Maher multiple times, Chief Financial Officer Joanne Louth suggested the council refrain from relying on specific revenue, particularly growth revenue or revenue used as benchmarks.
“I cringe at increasing the uniform construction code number because it was specifically out of the mouths of rating agencies that they don’t want to see us doing that,” said Ms. Louth.
At the last meeting, Ms. Louth explained the philosophy of the budget is to anticipate revenues less than what was realized last year because the excess money is what replenishes the fund balance which pays for 12 percent of the budget.
The fund balance is the amount of cash on hand at any given time to pay bills after which the money must be restored. If the money were not ýPage=008 Column=003 OK,0010.00þ
put back, the town would not have it at their disposal in the future.
Ms. Louth said her long-term concern was that if there were not enough revenue to support the budget, the state-mandated 2 percent levy cap would not allow the town to increase taxes ultimately forcing the town to cut services.
“My long-term concern is residents fleeing the town because of the taxes,” said Mr. Maher, interrupting Ms. Louth again.
Both Councilwoman Linda Geevers and Mr. Borek were also in favor of putting some of the liquor license revenue toward tax relief.
“There is room for improvement,” said Mr. Borek. “We should reduce this budget, but reduce it in a sensible fashion.”
Councilwoman Kristina Samonte said she could see cutting $50,000 worth of line items.
“I’m hearing four members of council would consider tapping money,” said Mr. Maher. “And four out of five want to see the revenue number increased.”
Mayor Shing-Fu Hsueh was not present during the vote, but later said he would look at all the proposals ýPage=008 Column=004 OK,0010.00þ
carefully. However, he added that he would not consider using liquor license revenue for tax relief citing using one-time revenue was “irresponsible.”
“It is the wrong idea and not what I want to do for this town,” said Mayor Hsueh. “One-shot revenue will not make up for the long-term budget. This is something I feel uncomfortable with it will add more problems for the future.”
Business Administrator Bob Hary said he preferred the original budget and was unable to determine how the council’s decision would impact the town in the future.
“But our job is to react to that and deal with that not only this budget year, but also coming years,” he added.
According to the Faulkner Act, it is the job of Mayor Hsueh and the administration to construct the budget, but once it is introduced it is in the hands of the council.
“Their major function is to review and decide on the budget,” said Mr. Hary. “I think there was temptation because we were so close to getting to a zero tax increase and they acted on that.”
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