Support for 2.

5 percent cap in property tax increases

Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Meir Rinde
STAFF WRITER

When Jack Ball was elected mayor of Ewing, he was given a card by the late Jake Garzio, the longtime
township clerk. It read, "It's easy to spend other people's money."

"I never forgot that," Ball said yesterday. "You just can't keep going to the people and putting your hand in
their pocket. It's got to stop, or at least slow down."

That's why he's supporting Gov. Chris Christie's call for a constitutional amendment that would limit
municipalities to 2.5 percent annual increases in their tax levies, he said. The only exceptions would be for
debt payments, or if 60 percent of voters approve a bigger increase.

The governor's office put out a list yesterday of 201 mayors supporting the tax cap proposal. The list is
bipartisan, but the four local mayors included -- Ball, John Bencivengo of Hamilton, Dave Fried of
Robbinsville and James Lynch of Bordentown City -- are Republicans.

Ball said he knows the new cap could make it even more challenging to balance Ewing's budget. The
township's tax rate will increase almost 16 cents per $100 of assessed home value this year as it copes with
rising pension and insurance costs, as well as cuts in state aid and other revenues.

"Is it going to be easy for us to do? No. It's going to be a little difficult. That's for sure," Ball said. "At least
Gov. Christie is someone who is trying to do something about the problem, not just throwing pebbles at it."

Legislative committees must approve the constitutional amendment by early July, and the Legislature must
pass it with a three-fifths vote by early August, if the measure is to appear on the November ballot.

Christie stumped for the plan in Robbinsville earlier this month, predicting dire consequences if it is not
adopted. Of the four local towns represented on the list, Robbinsville is the only one asking for a state waiver
this year allowing it to exceed the 4 percent tax levy cap established in 2007.

Fried's administration went before a Department of Community Affairs panel last week to request permission
to increase its levy $2.4 million above the current cap. With the waiver, the tax rate will increase 12.4 cents,
or about $496 on a $400,000 home.

Robbinsville faced a number of tax appeals from big owners of property this year that drained its surplus and
required it to raise the tax rate even after it found savings through furloughs, pay cuts and cost-sharing for
health benefits. But Fried said he supports the proposed cap because he believes it would force the
Legislature to stop passing unfunded mandates.

"I'm pretty passionate about this, because nothing else has worked," Fried said. "Putting the power back in
the voters' hands would make elected officials so much more accountable."

Mayors like him would be required to win residents' approval for any special expenditures, such as buying a
fire truck, he said.

"If I want to build a building, it forces me as an elected to official to say, this is why," Fried said. Christie's
proposal is "imperfect," he said, "but when you take a look at what's happened with property taxes over the
past 10 years, how could we do worse?"
Bencivengo could not be reached for comment.

Lynch said he signed on as a supporter not because the proposal is a perfect solution to New Jersey's
notoriously high tax burden, but because it is part of a larger set of reforms designed to reduce government
spending at the local level.

"You've got to look at the whole toolbox, not just the 2.5 percent cap," Lynch said. "No mayor is going to
agree with everything in that toolbox, but at some point something's got to be done."

Lynch said he was particularly interested in Christie's proposals to allow towns to furlough civil service
employees or opt out of civil service, cut future pension costs and control health-care costs. Benefit costs
would not be exempt from the constitutional amendment.

"We have to do something," Lynch said. "Nobody's talked me into anything else."

Contact Meir Rinde at mrinde@njtimes.com or (609) 989-5717.

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