It’s been more than five years since the old Borough and Township created the new, consolidated Princeton. The move, approved by voters after three previous efforts failed, promised to save taxpayers money and provide better services to residents. How has it worked out?
NJ Spotlight, the statewide online news organization, published a report on August 7 that took stock of some of the consequences. As expected, consolidation did not lower property taxes, but it apparently has slowed the rate of growth, according to NJ Spotlight’s analysis:
“Princeton residents have seen the rate of growth in their property-tax bills slow since the consolidation went into effect in 2013, according to a NJ Spotlight analysis of tax data compiled by both state and local officials. Bills were rising at nearly 20 percent cumulatively in both municipalities over a five-year stretch before the merger started being implemented in the 2000s, but the rate slowed to just over 10 percent for the five years spanning 2013 and 2017, the analysis showed.
“The municipal share of the local property-tax bill has also stayed steady at the same 21 percent since the merger, and the rate of growth in the overall municipal levy has also slowed, from over 16 percent in both Princetons during a five-year period before the merger, to 11 percent between 2013 and 2017. The statewide average for the same five-year period was 8.8 percent.”
According to NJ Spotlight’s report Princeton’s workforce was reduced from 229 employees to 204 because of the consolidation. The combined police force resulted in a decrease of six officers, down to 54 (and they no longer have to drive through a different municipality to answer calls as they did when the township was configured like a doughnut with the Borough in the hole). The full story is available at www.njspotlight.com.
