By Greg Forester, Staff Writer
WEST WINDSOR — A split Township Council voted 3-2 Monday to introduce a 2008 municipal budget including 50 percent salary increases for Township Council members.
Overall, the $35.4 million proposal represents a 12 percent increase over last year’s budget, including a 3.4-cent tax increase. That will hand West Windsor homeowners with residences assessed at the township average of $556,973 a total municipal tax bill of $1,748, representing a $189 increase over what was paid last year.
One of the smallest items in the budget introduced this week also happened to become one of the most controversial on council and among residents, an allocation that will increase council members’ salaries from under $5,000 per year to over $7,500.
The council members’ proposed raises translate into an extra $12,500 in the proposed budget. The budget also includes a raise in the mayor’s salary, which Mayor Shing-Fu Hsueh says he will not accept.
Council supporters including Will Anklowitz, Heidi Kleinman, Charles Morgan, and George Borek say the increase will end the confusing practice of reimbursements.
Some of them have indicated the reimbursement process requires members to make judgment calls on costs that may represent a gray area arising from trying to make a distinction between official township business, versus political or private business.
”This is all about open government. How many people in the community know exactly what each elected official was reimbursed last year?” said Mr. Morgan. “The community can know exactly what we’re getting paid, and not a penny more, or a penny less.”
Ms. Kleinman cited a recent seminar she attended with Mr. Morgan that required a 90-mile car trip, which would require reimbursement as official township business.
”Everybody has got their own opinion on what is a reimbursement, and it’s not clear,” Ms. Kleinman said.,
Councilwoman Linda Geevers spoke out against the proposal on Monday, as the sole council member aligned against it. She cited the economic downturn and said that the current reimbursement system worked properly.
”I don’t support the salary increases,” said Ms. Geevers. “I just do not feel confident that this is the right time to do it.”
Her comments elicited applause and cheers from audience members, some of whom have spoken out against the plan themselves at previous township meetings.
Mayor Hsueh’s stance has been one solidly against the proposed raises, which include eliminating his reimbursement program and increasing his salary to $25,000, from $17,800 plus a $3,000 annual car cost reimbursement.
Ms. Kleinman said both Mayor Hsueh and Ms. Geevers previously supported some type of increase in salaries, but both officials denied any similarity between their previous support and the township’s current fiscal environment.
”Then is then,” said Mayor Hsueh, in an interview Tuesday. “Now is now.”
While Ms. Geevers eventually voted against the raise-laden budget, Mr. Morgan did as well.
Earlier in the meeting he called the financial practices of the township administration “loosey-goosey,” although he later the rescinded the comment at the behest of Business Administrator Christopher Marion.
During various budget meetings Mr. Morgan raised concern over the ability of administration officials to go over line items in the budget by requesting transfers of moneys later in the year.
”The process of going through these line items each year is certainly not educational or useful, and it’s also an exercise on sophistry because we don’t live with these line item budgets,” said Mr. Morgan. “We get to the end of the year and there’s always something that can happen.”
He proposed taking additional money out of the municipal surplus to drop the proposed tax hike by a full cent, but the idea did not receive support from administration officials and was ultimately shelved.
At voting time, Ms. Kleinman, Mr. Anklowitz, and Councilman George Borek all supported the budget, with Ms. Geevers and Mr. Morgan casting the no votes.
”There’s a lot of uncertainty to come, but I think it’s a reasonable budget,” said Mr. Borek, in reflecting on the document.
Township Attorney Michael Herbert said that while the budget — if adopted in May — would include allocations for the salary increases, a salary ordinance would have to be passed to actually put the raises into effect.
That ordinance could be subject to a veto by Mayor Hsueh, Mr. Herbert said.
