Cranbury Twp. On Chopping Block In State List To Merge Towns

CRANBURY, NJ — In a desperate effort to cut taxes and fix New Jersey's finances, a group of lawmakers in Trenton is considering consolidating towns, and getting rid of towns that have fewer than 5,000 year-round residents.

Those towns would be merged with larger, surrounding municipalities and share police, fire and other municipal services, as well as schools. There are 191 total towns on the list, according to a memo obtained by NJ.com and made public Thursday.

And two of those towns are in Middlesex County, Cranbury Township and Helmetta.

Cranbury Mayor Glenn Johnson told Patch Thursday he wasn't too concerned the plan would actually go through.

"This has been threatened before, under then-governor Corzine," he said. "It did not happen then. Some people think this is a good idea, but it won't fix New Jersey's pension problem. And Cranbury already has the lowest taxes in Middlesex County, and we send our kids to Princeton High School."

This is just one of many ideas currently being secretly discussed in Trenton right now, as part of a panel put together by Senate Majority Leader Steve Sweeney. The panel that he convened, called the Economic and Fiscal Policy Working Group, is currently mulling up to 60 ideas to lower New Jersey's property taxes, balance the budget and reform the state's underfunded pension mess. The ideas are particularly needed after President Trump eliminated New Jersey's property tax deduction.

The only two towns in Middlesex County being considered for consolidation are:

1. Cranbury Twp., population 3,803
2. Helmetta, population 2,314

Nearby, Allentown (pop. 1,890) and Englishtown (pop. 2,189) are also on the list. See the list of the entire 191 towns here.