Letter: Princeton Mayor's Forum

To the Editor:

I was disappointed that the subject of Princeton Township’s budget was not addressed at the recent Princeton Mayor’s Forum.  While Ms. Lempert boasted that she helped achieve a zero increase in taxes from last year to the current year, she neglected to mention that her party, the Democratic Party, has been firmly in control of Princeton Township for the past 20 years.  During that time, Princeton Township’s annual budget has soared to the extent that it is now nearly twice the size of the budget of any other town with a similar population in New Jersey.  My analysis includes the current budgets of eight municipalities of the same size in Mercer, Bergen, Monmouth, and Morris Counties.

When I recently appeared before the Princeton Township Committee to raise the issue of its budget’s  disproportionately large size in relation to its population, I mentioned the budget of our neighbor, Hopewell Township, which not only has more people but more than three times the land area.  I was dismissed on the basis that Hopewell Township doesn’t include public sewers in its budget.  According to  Princeton Township’s budget, the annual cost of sewers appears to be in the vicinity of $3 million.  Where is the remainder of the $17 million difference between Princeton Township’s current budget of $37 million and Hopewell Township’s $20 million?  While Hopewell Township’s annual debt service is  $3.1 million, Princeton Township’s now stands at a staggering $7.3 million.  What is the justification for this enormous debt on the part of a township with only 16,000 people?  Aside from Hopewell, most of the municipalities I examined have public sewers, but their budgets are still approximately half the size of Princeton Township.

These are questions that should have been asked at the recent Mayor’s Forum.  In my view, the taxpayers of the new Princeton have a responsibility to demand change.  Some of us cannot afford a municipal budget that is twice the size of towns with similar populations.  Only Dick Woodbridge and Geoff Aton can begin to deliver the change that is essential at this time.  On November 6, please vote for Woodbridge and Aton. Thank you.

Frank Wiener

150 Loomis Court

Princeton

609-683-9657