Mayor: Budget Has Hit Administration Goals

With the recent introduction of the , Mayor Dan Hayes said he is proud of the work done by the administration to maintain his goals, especially keeping Bridgewater as having among the lowest taxes in the county.

"This budget has hit our goals," he said. "This budget was the result of a lot of hard work by the departments, and most importantly it meets our objectives. The budget achieves that while maintaining essential services and quality of life."

The budget is set at $38,451,229.13, a 4.5 percent increase over the 2011 budget, set at about $36.8 million.

The municipal tax for a Bridgewater resident is set at $1,053 for a home assessed at the township average of $411,662. This is an average increase of $65 over the 2011 municipal taxes, or about 6.6 percent.

Hayes said the budget process included a department by department review to determine where cuts could be made. He said he did not focus on an overarching cut among all departments, just looked at each of them individually.

"The budget is a compilation of cuts," he said. "Every department experienced cuts from their requests in order to make this budget."

The first portion of the year, Hayes said, was spent working within the individual goals of the administration, reviewing requests from departments and determining which could and should be fulfilled.

"We essentially looked and saw where we could meet our goals," he said. "Anything extraneous was cut."

But in addition to the departments themselves, Hayes said, the administration had to remember that there were already additional costs in the budget for emergency appropriations made in the wake of Hurricane Irene in August.

This included $642,509 for emergencies issued through Irene and additional litigation needed. Also part of these one-time appropriations were $26,400 for police cars that were destroyed in the hurricane, and which will be paid for over the span of five years.

"It wasn't difficult knowing they were coming because, when we were into the budget process, we were already aware of them," Hayes said. "As a member of council, I was part of the decisions for these appropriations."

"The difficult part was dealing with them and having to incorporate those into the budget," he added. "That puts additional pressure on departments to meet objectives."

Still, Hayes said, the township is able to offer all the same services that have been offered in the past.

First, Hayes said, there were no positions eliminated in the township, no layoffs or furloughs added. He said there have been adjustments over the last few years that have already reduced the township staff.

And, Hayes said, the township has worked to bring inspectors in different departments in house.

"One thing we did early on is we brought inspectors that were outsourced through a third party, and decided to bring that in house," he said. "I was a major supporter of that, and that resulted in a significant positive impact, which offset other costs."

Now, the administration is doing something similar in the engineering department to reduce costs in this year's budget.

"We have organized the engineering department to be more responsive, and, in the process of that, we will be able to generate revenue in excess of costs of that department," Hayes said. "Last year, we relied on a different third party for consulting, and this year, we are working on it in house."

For plan reviews and inspections, Hayes said, most will now be done by township staff, which he called a "major boon" to the residents.

"Those reviews are paid by developers, but residents benefit because when they are seeking permits or advice, the staff is here to help them," he said. "We deliver higher level service, and are able to cover costs to have a positive impact on the budget."

Although residents have questioned in the past about bringing back the bulk trash pick-up throughout the township, Hayes said, that is still being worked on.

"That is a high priority, and a campaign commitment," he said. "We are still working on it, but it is not in this budget."

"Stay tuned," he added.

The 2012 budget, Hayes said, also has a focus on supporting infrastructure, with an additional 50 percent of capital funds allocated for road reconstruction and other similar work.

"Generally that list is of roads that were negatively affected by Irene, but it is independent of the emergency funds," he said.

Other than that, Hayes said, the budget focuses on maintaining all the services Bridgewater residents are used to, without raising taxes too high.

"We would love to see no tax increase, that would be absolutely the most desirable position," he said. "But we have to balance that with the need to deliver and supply services that a community like ours expects."

"And we are among the lowest, if not the lowest, municipality in terms of taxes," he added. "We are supplying the services the township says it needs to have to be a quality community. That's the trade-off we would like people to recognize."

Hayes said he believes this budget does everything the administration set out to do, maintaining services, increasing efficiency and keeping taxes low.

"I'm extremely proud of the admininstration," he said. "Bridgewater is a community that is envied by others. We are still able to provide all the major services residents want."