Township Budget No tax increase

[anon-7666]

Article from the Cranbury Press. The TC voted to keep the tax rate flat 4-1. Good job. The one no vote was Jay who pressed to reduce debt and lower the tax rate citing the need to protect the AAA bond rating and the increasing cash surplus.

https://centraljersey.com/2021/02/01/cranbury-township-does-not-anticipate-increase-in-municipal-taxes-for-2021/

[anon-r652]

With the additional Warehouses and Corporate centers brought in over the past few years it would have been expected that the Tax rate decrease, not remain unchanged. I differ that an unchanged rate should be considered a "Good Job". Jay's position to lower Taxes would have bee an " Excellent Job" Unchanged tax rate is a mediocre effortless attempt at pacification of Taxpayers who deserve better.

[anon;oqs8-0076]

Jay was correct in this instance. His professional experience and tenure on the Committee qualifies him to correctly take that position. The other Committee members are mistaken in their votes and if they truly understood the situation and the ramifications they probably would have voted differently. One thing to note is that Cranbury is to the end of the building boom gravy train. We are almost finished with the warehouses building explosion and after Toll Brothers 172 houses on Petty/Dey Road we are pretty much out of buildable lots. At that time we need to consider reducing the Construction Department and the Zoning office to part time employees. Quite possibly those departments could be merged.

[anon-r652]

Covid closures at the Township have proven the point that the Township employee roster is overstaffed. The Town has functioned while township employees were home for weeks/months. Reductions in staff are necessary to decrease expenditures and lower taxes. The last time there was a reduction in staff at the Township, the Salary of the eliminated position was divided up among remaining Township employees under the guise that they would put in more hours etc, resulting in very little Salary reduction to the budget. In Corporate life, when positions are eliminated the responsibilities of the eliminated position are assigned to others with no additional compensation. In the Township world, they get more pay, hence increasing pensions in the future perpetuating the cycle of increased Taxes to the Community.

[anon-5n9o]

There’s still plenty of land on south River road for warehouses. Probably another 8 or so depending on size. Half acre still has another lot and dey rd and south River intersection. Hightstown cranbury station rd lots are for sale all commercial zoned.

[anon-417n]

Like others, I tend to see no tax increase the same as an increase.

The only person quoted who is in favor of keeping taxes flat seems to be grasping at straws to find ways to discredit the numbers. There seems to be no logical reason posed to not cut taxes. From the article the administrator:

- says new property will come on line (increases revenue) which increases revenue and surplus and then as if realizing the mistake of the comment raises the tax assessor being too optimistic about timing.

- states she disagrees with the tax assessor about when the new revenue will be added but it is the tax assessor who knows what is coming and what the value will be. That is literally his role and main job function to determine our values.

- states we have a healthy surplus reported at over 6 million.
as though realizing this supports a tax cut adds a concern about what may happen over 5 years from now.

- Then hedges against the five year outlook by saying no new rateables will be onboard after toll and the other warehouses cited by the tax assessor unless warehouses are torn down and rebuilt. Which is what we saw with a Home Depot, the Aetna building and others.