Bridgewater Asks State for Tax Reform–In Its Own Words

It's not a common move for Bridgewater, yet concern over a lack of reforms to aid property tax relief has the council ready to join with other municipalities to pass a resolution urging the state legislation to move forward with reforms.

But while the council is committed to voting on a resolution that would call for the passage of the governor-introduced municipal toolkit to aid in tax relief, Council President Matthew Moench prefers that it be done on the township's terms.

As listed on the agenda for the Aug. 16 council meeting, the resolution the council was to have voted on would have been a form one from the New Jersey League of Municipalities.

Moench said he preferred instead to have one specifically for Bridgewater.

"Some of the language I had questions on, and I thought we could tighten it up," he said.

The resolution itself concerns Gov. Chris Christie's proposal for a municipal tax reform toolkit to assist municipalities in meeting the 2 percent cap for annual property tax levy increases recently enacted by the state legislature.

"We are asking the legislature to act on these reforms so we can meet the 2 percent cap created by Gov. Christie," Moench said.

The toolkit, as recommended by the governor, is designed to aid officials in meeting the impact of the $450 million cuts in municipal property tax relief approved in this year's state budget.

According to the form resolution, Christie's toolkit is designed to accomplish six objectives, namely collective bargaining reform; pension and benefits reform; civil service reform, management reform; a constitutional cap on increases in spending for direct state government services; and a cap on property tax increases.

Moench said at the meeting that he had prepared a revised version of the resolution, which makes the same requests as the form one, but is written, he believes, a little more cleanly.

"I support the resolution, but I have questions," he said.

Basically, Moench's version of the resolution removes many  of the details in the summation of the resolution, instead simply calling for the legislature to move forward with the administration's mandates to assist municipalities in managing a 2 percent cap.

The form resolution calls on each type of reform by name, splitting out health benefit reforms, energy tax and changes to the Council on Affordable Housing, among others.

In a separate interview, Moench said he believes it is essential that the legislation pass the toolkit's reforms to help municipalities across the state provide property tax relief for residents without having to eliminate any of the services they have come to expect.

"A 2 percent cap without the toolkit reforms will have a drastic impact on the services that municipalities can provide," he said. "The taxpayers of New Jersey deserve nothing less than the full toolkit of reforms proposed by Gov. Christie."

Councilman Howard Norgalis made the motion at the meeting to table the initial resolution until the council had an opportunity to review Moench's proposal.

This year, Bridgewater lost $1.9 million, or 25 percent, of its state aid from 2009, and, in June, approved a $36 million municipal budget, complete with some forced cuts and 15 layoffs made in May.

And to weather that storm, Moench said, it would be helpful to have this toolkit approved.

Moench said even considering passing a resolution like this one is atypical for Bridgewater, which does not usually like to be one of dozens of similar resolutions passed concerning state issues.

"[But] this issue is so critical to Bridgewater's future that Mayor [Patricia] Flannery and I feel it is essential that Bridgewater pass this resolution and lend our support to the growing number of bi-partisan voices calling on Sen. [Stephen] Sweeney and Assemblywoman [Sheila] Oliver to provide municipalities the tools necessary to local leaders to meet the 2 percent property cap," he said.

Normally, Moench said, Bridgewater only weighs in on these kinds of issues when they are of significant importance to the residents.

This time, he said, this one qualifies.

"This unofficial policy has been in practice primarily so that when we do pass a resolution, it gets more notice, rather than just being one of dozens passed by Bridgewater," he said. "Passing the toolkit is an issue that has a great impact on Bridgewater and deserves some attention so that the leaders of our state legislature don't stop just at passing the tax cap. There's still work that must be done."