Executive Order: Caldwell Emerges With 0% Tax Hike

After word spread this week of potential furloughs to Borough of Caldwell employees, concerned members of the police department filed into Wednesday night's special budget meeting to listen to the governing body's proposal.

That discussion never occurred.

In a sudden twist of events, council adjourned into executive session facing a $184,927 budget increase and 2.66 percent tax hike and emerged an hour later without a deficit or tax increase—or a reason to consider furloughs.

"The discussion is over," said Councilman Joseph Norton, chairman of the budget committee. "Items three, four and five on our agenda of furloughs for the police department, non-union employees and the DPW employees will no longer need to take place."

Instead, Norton presented the CURE.

In what is being called the Community User Resource Enhancement (CURE) tariff, the borough plans to implement a new tax that could allow municipalities that house colleges to charge a semester fee of $50 to each full-time student and $25 to each part-time student for the use of services like the police and fire departments.

"It has not yet been discussed with the college yet," Mayor Susan Gartland warned.

According to Norton, a meeting with Caldwell College officials to discuss the charge to students was scheduled for Thursday morning.

The New Jersey State League of Municipalities introduced the idea in November and several college municipalities, including Montclair, Wayne, Little Falls, Mahwah, Teaneck and Clifton have already passed a resolution asking Legislation to approve the bill.

Not all municipalities with colleges, however, have supported the fee. Jersey City council members voted down a resolution last week to ask the state to draft a law establishing fees to students at the city's three colleges.

With a total enrollment of approximately 2,300, including about 1,300 full-time, Caldwell College students could generate a yearly revenue of nearly $180,000.

In addition, Norton introduced a plan to reduce police overtime by $75,000 and a new phone and technology system that could save the borough an additional $25,000.

"When I moved here seven years ago, my taxes were at an acceptable level. In seven years, my taxes have doubled," Norton said. "That was one of the reasons why I ran for council to try to keep our taxes in check and not skyrocketing through the roof. I want to stabilize them.

"There are going to be a couple of years of very hard decisions that everybody up here has to make. A lot of hard decisions have already been made and there are going to be a lot more to come."

According to Norton, police overtime will be reduced from $175,000 to $100,000 for the year.

However, Councilman Gordon Lawshe, chairman of the public safety committee, had planned to reduce police overtime from approximately $170,000 last year to $125,000—an amount that was questioned at the March 30 budget meeting as being too low considering the police department had already accrued $42,000 in overtime during the first quarter of the year.

In addition, Lawshe, who, along with Councilman Kay Slattery, missed Wednesday night's meeting, pointed out at last week's regular council meeting the potential for an undetermined amount of police overtime to conduct traffic safety during Essex County's construction of the intersection of Bloomfield and Roseland avenues this summer.

"We don't have the money," Lawshe pointed out at the April 13 meeting.

But following Norton's quick presentation following the hour-long private session, there was no further discussion or explanation Wednesday night as those in attendance were somewhat stunned by the sudden change of events.

According to Norton, the borough's budget began with a zero increase, but has fluctuated to as much as $407,000 over the past month.

After Gov. Chris Christie slashed Caldwell's state aid by 20.4 percent, the budget increased by $176,575, Norton said.

"Due to some issues in regard to revenue sources throughout the borough," that amount ballooned to $407,000 that was reduced to $273,000 by cutbacks made through various committees and then scaled down further to $204,000 and then again to $184,927 entering Wednesday night's meeting, Norton said.

Norton now plans to introduce the budget—with a zero percent tax increase—at Tuesday night's regular public meeting.

"This is purely a lifeline for the taxpayer of this town. It has been overburdened for the past several years," Norton said. "It's time we have to put a foot down and come in with a sensible, reasonable budget that is fiscally sound, not only for this year, but for years to come."