The Trenton Times published the following article on June 28, 2013. To read the full article, click here.
Mercer County budget approved; tax rates increase in nearly every municipality
By Brendan McGrath/The Times of Trenton
on June 28, 2013 at 7:10 AMThe Mercer County budget for 2013 was officially adopted last night as the board of freeholders voted to accept the amended version that totals $288,571,219.
This was down $8.5 million from the budget that was originally proposed by County Executive Brian Hughes to the board in February, but it is up about $2 million from last year’s budget.
Property tax levies will raise $243,809,895 for the budget while state aid, account surplus and other county revenues will raise the remaining $44,761,324.
Nearly every municipality in Mercer County saw their rates go up this year, with the exception of Trenton, Hamilton and Ewing.
Hightstown saw the biggest increase with a jump of 21.8 percent or 11.1 cents per $100 of equalized assessed property value.
Even with the reduction, Hamilton still carries the largest burden of taxes in the county, as it will provide 19.5 percent of tax revenue this year. Princeton, Lawrence and West Windsor are the only other municipalities to carry more than 10 percent of the burden.
Republican freeholder candidate Ron Ceffalone of Hopewell put out a press release this week saying that he and fellow Republican candidate Paul Hummel believe that they had an effect on the proposed budget being cut this year.
“We weren’t even on the board yet and we were able to sway the present county freeholders to strip more than $8.5 million from their budget and some of their cuts will be affecting public safety,” Ceffalone’s release said.
Earlier this week, the all-Democratic freeholder board and the Democratic county executive expressed concern over the financial hardships for county residents as they agreed on what would become the final budget.
An $8.5 million cut “is a tremendous amount that is going to make for a better situation in a very tough year,” Hughes said at the previous meeting.
The County Correction Center and the Open Space Preservation program shouldered about three-quarters of the cut, while many other departments saw smaller reductions.
Hughes noted earlier this year that he hoped to continue to rebuild the county’s budget surplus, or rainy day fund, in an attempt to bolster the county’s credit rating, but it is unclear whether this amended budget will reach that goal.
Contact Brendan McGrath at (609)989-5731 or at bmcgrath@njtimes.com.