Howell Mayor Robert F. Walsh wants to meet with Gov. Chris Christie to discuss Howell’s $1.8 million cut in state aid, a decrease that municipal officials say could result in the loss of 16 police officers’ jobs this year.
Howell will receive $7.9 million in state aid in 2010 (fiscal year 2011), which is down from $9.7 million in 2009 (fiscal year 2010).
“I will be pleading, and I am not a good pleader,” Walsh said at the April 6 Howell Township Council workshop meeting. “I don’t want to get your hopes up. I will seek any relief I can. If we get any relief at all, we will re-address it with the unions.”
Municipal officials recently learned about the state aid decrease, a cut that will have what Township Manager Helene Schlegel called a “devastating impact” on this year’s budget.
Christie has reduced state aid to municipalities to help close an $11 billion deficit in this year’s state budget.
Schlegel decided the fairest way to cope with the reduction in state aid is to split the impact among three sections of the township’s budget – $600,000 from the Howell Police Department salaries and benefits; $600,000 from the civilian work force; and $600,000 from daily operating expenses.
Police department salaries and benefits make up about 51 percent of Howell’s salaries and benefits, and the civilian portion accounts for about 49 percent of Howell’s salaries and benefits, she said.
“I felt it was important to get everyone on board,” Schlegel said after the meeting. “I believe this is the fairest way to find the money.”
The township’s unclassified employees and workers who are represented by the Teamsters Union and the Transport Workers Union (TWU) have all agreed to take off every other Friday without pay. That translates into 17 unpaid days in 2010. The unpaid Fridays will begin on April 16 and run through November, Schlegel said.
“I understand the governor’s motives,” she said. “I’m kind of torn. I didn’t know what I was going to do, but it’s something that needs to be shared among everyone. It starts at the top and goes down.”
However, Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association Local 220 and the Superior Officers Association so far have balked at the request for unpaid time off.
“Regrettably, we are unable at this time to reach an agreement with the unions representing the police department,” Schlegel said.
The manager said she was optimistic that the police unions may eventually agree to the arrangement.
“Everyone is saying I’m laying off police officers, but there are options. I cannot implement things such as wage freezes or givebacks. I can only request them,” Schlegel said.
“I’m sure we can come to some kind of common ground with the PBA,” Walsh said at the April 6 meeting. “These are trying times, as we all know. The truth of the matter is there is no money tree.”
The police unions have hired a forensic accountant to examine the police department in an attempt to find other ways to save money, Walsh said.
“The chief of police will begin the process of notifying officers of their impending layoffs,” the mayor said. “The chief will begin an internal reorganization of the police department.”
If no solution is found, 16 patrol officers will lose their jobs and four sergeants will be demoted to patrol officer positions, Schlegel said.
Marie Zito, the office manager for the Howell Department of Public Works and the local TWU chairwoman, said the union’s agreement to have its members take unpaid Fridays was “a difficult, difficult decision.”
“But the governor took $1.8 million from us,” she said.
Schlegel gave the union an opportunity to find other ways to cope with the state aid cut, Zito said.
“But it’s just an impossible thing right now,” she said. “If a bundle of money appears from the skies, we will reopen these 17 days. I’m just hoping for the best.”
“I just want to say to all of you, thank you from the bottom of my heart,” Councilwoman Pauline Smith told Zito. “If there were any other way, I know Helene would do it. I thank you for your cooperation. This governing body does not want to lay off one police officer or anybody else.”
“You are stepping up to the plate for the citizens of Howell, and that is to be commended,” Walsh said. “I pray that things get a little better down in Trenton. The state’s a mess. We have a governor who is totally telling the truth about how big a mess it is in.”
Howell officials could ask the state for an exception, which would allow the township to make up the $1.8 million in state aid cuts by tacking it onto the local tax levy portion of the municipal budget, Walsh said, but that would also entail paying a $465,000 penalty.
“The governing body at this time does not think this is a viable option,” he said. “These are difficult times. It’s going to be about shared sacrifice.”
Howell officials earlier this year compiled a preliminary $44.3 million municipal budget. The municipal purposes tax rate would rise from 28.2 cents to 32.5 cents per $100 of assessed valuation. If the 2010 budget is eventually adopted with that tax rate increase in place, the owner of a home that is assessed at $350,000 would pay about $1,137 in municipal taxes this year, up from $987 in the previous year.
The earlier proposed budget included no layoffs or employee furloughs, but that was before Christie released state aid figures to New Jersey’s municipalities and school districts on March 16.
The Township Council planned to hold a special meeting on the budget on April 13, after this edition went to print.
Contact Patricia A. Miller