State cuts force Wantage to re-think budget

Wantage — Gov. Chris Christie’s newly-announced cuts in state aid, along with an already-challenging economy, will hit Wantage Township’s proposed 2010 budget hard and may lead to a tax increase, said Township Administrator Jim Doherty. “The state government’s decision to confiscate state aid from local taxpayers will make an already-difficult budget year even more difficult for local taxpayers,” he said. Doherty said that Wantage is still determining its proposed budget and tax rate for 2010, but based on current projections, its draft 2010 budget meets the state’s requirement for a 3.5 percent spending cap and a 4 percent tax cap. The township has taken steps to spend less than it did in 2009 — $5.5 million — by cutting $153,000, pending any further cuts it might feel forced to make. So far, the 2010 spending plan includes: a 20 percent across-the-board cut in all departmental operating budgets a flat budget for all operational utilities (electric, fuel oil, gasoline, diesel, propane, telephone, etc.) a flat budget for all professional costs (attorney, engineer, planner) a flat budget for all public safety costs (fire, first aid, emergency management 911 dispatch, OSHA requirements) cuts in salary costs through attrition The current bottom line projection for 2010, as a result of these measures, is that salaries will run the township 2.5 percent less than in the current budget. Despite these cost control measures, Doherty said, the decrease in revenues has been dramatic during the down economy, and although nothing is final yet, Wantage is looking at the likelihood of a significant tax increase. “If Trenton had, for the past two decades, lived within the same spending cap that it imposed on local governments, New Jersey’s state government would not be in the budget crisis it is in today,” Doherty said. Wantage Township originally planned to introduce its 2010 municipal budget at its March 25 committee meeting. Given the governor’s announcements, however, the council will take more time to review its budget and now expects to introduce it at the April 15 committee meeting.

I understand the governor’s plight. I know that difficult times call for difficult decisions. But those decisions should not involve taking money that they have no right to take, simply to shift the burden of blame away from themselves.” Jim Doherty, Wantage Township Administrator