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Health & Fitness

Government That's Been Listening

With almost every other town in Middlesex County raising taxes this year, East Brunswick Township is coming in with a tax cut, spending in 2012 what we spent in 2005. How did we do it?

Pop open a newspaper from our area, or even better, browse the Patches from surrounding towns and look up what some other municipalities' budgets look like. Unless you are truly in need a hobby, or one of the unfortunate few of us who are fascinated by this stuff, it will probably bore you pretty quickly. Pay attention to the bottom line though, what their line on taxes will be this year. Is it an increase? Decrease? Staying flat? You can skim over all the other stuff, because it's the numbers that matter.

In East Brunswick, the municipal portion of your tax bill is going to be decreasing. How many other municipalities can say the same? While headlines in other towns focus on them laying off numerous police officers, privatizing services, or doing away with services altogether, East Brunswick has been able to continually do more with less due to long-term planning, objective analysis, buy-in and cooperation from members of both political parties. 


Spending in East Brunswick is now at 2005 levels. Like most other municipalities in the State, East Brunswick went through, and still faces, a staggering number of tax appeals that have been filed due to the decline in the value of real property in our town. Unlike other towns though, East Brunswick was able to see the storm approaching and labored to enact cost saving proposals that allowed our actual budget to decrease, and better reflect the record drop in revenues the town was able to take in. East Brunswick is spending the same amount in 2012, as it did 7 years ago, in 2005.

Find out what's happening in East Brunswickwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Even with all of the fiscal challenges that face our town, East Brunswick was able to make investments to our park system, with the grand opening of Pine Ridge Park just last week, and our annual pavement management program, which will be repaving several township roads and streets this Spring and Summer. In addition, we were able to increase funding to our municipal library, consistently hailed as one of the best public libraries state-wide.

How were we able to do it in East Brunswick? While other towns shed as many as 20-50 employees around the State, just to have a tax increase that came under the State-mandated two-percent cap, we have only lost two employees over the past year, and are still able to achieve a 3-cent tax decrease. Planning from prior administrations helped, as well as the continuity provided by many of our veteran department heads and employees who have come up with cost saving strategies themselves. Our parks department maintenance staff and shade-tree crews now regularly assist where they can, often saving the township thousands of dollars by not contracting out with private businesses for smaller jobs. A willingness from Council members, and Mayor Stahl to tackle the big problems without regard to partisan politics also contributed heavily to our successes this budget cycle. We have undertaken a concerted effort to lower our expenses to professional staff such as outside attorneys and engineers, which started as soon as I was sworn into the Township Council. All of our outside professionals had their retainers cut by 10%. Not only have retainers gone down, but we have rid ourselves of several costly legal cases that manifested in huge bills, crippling our financial flexibility elsewhere.

Find out what's happening in East Brunswickwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The biggest reason for our cost savings have been our employees themselves. Our Police Department is consistently asked to do more with less resources, but our department has proved to be aggressive and tireless in their pursuit of grants and alternative forms of revenue, allowing them to be as efficient as possible at the least cost to you, the taxpayer. In addition, our Public Works staff has been able to prolong the lives of much of our township's fleet while not dramatically increasing our maintenance costs, which allows us stretch an extra few years out of equipment that otherwise would have to be bought new. 

Talk is cheap when it comes to municipal budgeting, the truth lies in the numbers, so take a look for yourself. There is a lot to be happy about, and reason to have some faith restored in municipal government.

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