Governor Chris Christie wasn’t done when he chopped huge chunks of state aid from suburban school districts this month. He has apparently also turned his axe on municipalities as well.
In West Windsor Township, officials said they got a “big surprise” when state aid figures were released last week — a decrease of $621,000, or 24 percent.
Mayor Shing-Fu Hsueh said the township was informed of an estimated number several months ago, but he was blind-sided by the 24 percent bloodletting announced last week.
Part of the decrease came in the form of the energy tax receipt. Each year, utility companies pay taxes for placing their telephone poles and other equipment on municipal land. The money, however, goes to the state, where it is calculated and divided between all of the state’s municipalities based on criteria including municipal population, property value, and the township’s wealth.
“Basically, in West Windsor, we didn’t get a lot because we have been classified as a relatively high income area,” Hsueh said. “The thing here is although it’s not very much, it’s still a lot of money.”
“The additional cut of $621,000 is really hurting the whole budget process,” added Hsueh, who said that because of the drastic change, his administration delayed sending the 2010 municipal budget to Township Council members on March 19, as originally promised.
In addition to dealing with the state aid reduction, officials will have to deal with a 4 percent property tax cap.
“Very frankly, we can get by because of the money we saved from last year” in the surplus, said Hsueh. “Last year, if we spent most of the surplus, this year we would have been in trouble. In a lot of towns, they talk about cutting services. In West Windsor, we are hoping this will be the last thing we are going to do.”
The administration is expecting to have a preliminary budget to council sometime this week.
