By Lea Kahn, Staff Writer
With the expiration of a 2-percent cap on police and fire interest arbitration awards about six weeks away, East Windsor Township Council is urging state lawmakers to extend the measure.
The State Legislature approved a temporary 2-percent cap on police and fire interest arbitration awards in 2010. It was set to expire in 2014, but state lawmakers extended the sunset to Dec. 31, 2017.
A 2-percent cap on the property tax levy, which was enacted at the same time in 2010, is permanent and does not include an exemption for police and fire interest arbitration awards.
Under interest arbitration, an outside arbitrator can step in to help negotiate an employment contract settlement if the police and fire unions cannot reach an agreement with municipal officials.
The eight-member Police and Fire Public Interest Arbitration Task Force – made up of four appointees by Gov. Chris Christie and two apiece appointed by the state Senate president and the speaker of the General Assembly – was set to release its report in December.
Instead, Gov. Christie’s four appointees released their recommendations in September – and it is that report which Township Council relied on in writing to state Sen. Linda Greenstein and Assemblymen Daniel Benson and Wayne DeAngelo as it urged them to extend the 2-percent cap. They represent East Windsor Township in the State Legislature.
In Township Council’s Nov. 8 letter to the three lawmakers, it noted that the report released by Gov. Christie’s appointees on Sept. 26 “underscores the importance of this 2-percent cap in holding down taxpayer costs.”
“The report finds that based on the reduction in the growth of property taxes from 2010 to 2015, New Jersey taxpayers saved an estimated $2.9 billion in property taxes,” Mayor Janice Mironov wrote in the letter.
“In addition, the report states that based on the current number of full-time police officers in New Jersey, the reduction in the growth of police salaries under the 2-percent cap has saved taxpayers approximately $428,698,550, with no detectable adverse impact in the quality and caliber of applicants for police or fire recruitment,” Mayor Mironov wrote.
“It is unfortunate that no action has been taken to extend the 2-percent police and fire interest arbitration award cap,” she wrote. “Overall, the report clearly supports that this has been a positive tool without any negative impacts as a result of having the cap in place.”
Finally, the task force pointed out that police and fire contracts often set the pattern for the other unions that represent municipal employees within the same town. The savings generated by the 2-percent cap extended to contracts with other municipal employees.
In a resolution adopted earlier this year that called for keeping the 2-percent cap on police and fire interest arbitration awards, Township Council noted that while municipalities continue efforts to contain costs and provide services to residents within the 2-percent property tax cap, “salary costs to a great extent drive property tax increases.”
