LAWRENCE: Council seeking non-profit donations

   Aiming to close the budget gap, Lawrence Township officials are planning to ask the owners of tax-exempt properties to voluntarily contribute a percentage of the municipal property tax that they would pay if they were required to make that payment.
   Municipal Manager Richard Krawczun made the suggestion to seek voluntary contributions from the non-profit organizations at Township Council’s June 6 meeting, and offered the council a draft version of a letter that would be sent to them.
   Mr. Krawczun told the council that the issue of tax-exempt organizations and the lack of property tax payments from them was mentioned by the three township residents who volunteered to review the proposed 2012 municipal budget.
   While The Lawrenceville School and Rider University were the focus of the discussions with the three volunteers, Mr. Krawczun said, it occurred to him that this might be an opportunity to ask the other non-profit groups to make voluntary contributions.
   Township Council was presented with a list of non-profit groups that own property, which included the 2012 assessed values and the amount of property tax they would pay. It was broken down by the amount they would pay to Mercer County, the Mercer County Library System, Lawrence Township, the Lawrence Township school district, and the Mercer County and Lawrence Township open space taxes.
   The 80-plus properties owned by the tax-exempt organizations are assessed at $287,584,000 for property tax purposes. If those properties were taxed, they would generate $2.5 million in municipal property taxes — which is the amount that would have closed the budget gap for the 2012 municipal spending plan, Mr. Krawczun said.
   The organizations included on the list range from schools to houses of worship, group home operators and non-profit entities such as the Mercer Street Friends Center, American Legion Post 414 and Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 3022.
   Mr. Krawczun’s list noted that The Lawrenceville School contributes $65,000 to the township and Rider University contributes $35,000, but they would account for $821,530 and $533,491, respectively, in municipal property taxes. Their holdings are assessed at $97.8 million and $63.5 million, respectively.
   ”I felt it would be fair to ask all of the tax-exempt properties to contribute voluntarily,” Mr. Krawczun said after the meeting. “It’s a degree of being fair. What’s fair is fair. All such organizations receive some level of municipal services.”
   Those services include snow plowing, road repairs and maintenance, and police, fire and emergency medical services, the municipal manager said. The employees make use of those services and benefit from them, he added.
   ”It is important that we recognize that the issue of tax exempt properties goes beyond the two biggest tax-exempt organizations — The Lawrenceville School and Rider University,” Mr. Krawczun said. “The other non-profit property owners are receiving the same benefits as are people who are paying taxes in Lawrence.”