Edison Twp. introduces new budget amendment All agree that cuts need to be made before adoption BY CHRIS GAETANO Staff Writer The Edison Township Council introduced an amended budget during its Feb. 27 meeting after a previous amendment was rescinded earlier in the month. A public hearing is set for March 10. The new budget amendment will represent a 10.8 percent tax increase, coming to about 9.5 cents more per $100 of assessed property value. This is contrasted with the unamended budget, which carries a 14.9 percent increase coming out to about 13.2 cents more per $100 of assessed property value. The previous budget amendment, which was rescinded during the Feb. 13 council meeting, would have increased the tax by 9.8 cents per $100 of assessed property value. While the budget amendment was introduced unanimously by all members of the council, no one sounded very happy about its contents. All of them felt that it was too high and pledged to work to find ways to make cuts for the sake of the taxpayer. "This township can do better. This township must to better," said Councilman Anthony Massarro. Councilwoman Melissa Perilstein expressed her own regrets about the state of the budget and called for the formation of an independent finance committee to help advise the council, and for the sewer utility surplus not to be used to patch over financial holes. She also said she would like to examine several issues within the budget a bit more closely, such as the use of "splits," where funding for one department comes from the budget of another. "We are not in a good financial state. The entire state is not in a good financial time. … We need to dissect [the budget] and see where [we can make cuts] if possible," said Perilstein. Several council members emphatically noted that they would need the help and assistance of the department heads in order to properly examine the budget as well, and hoped that they would get the necessary cooperation from them. "I think this council wants to do the right thing. I do think we need some help here," council President Robert Diehl said, referring to the department heads. Diehl also said he wants to have information from the administration on how much money has already been spent in emergency appropriations this fiscal year, and that it is vital to make an informed decision on the budget process. Massarro said that some of the more notable items included the use of the township's surplus, inclusion of about $440,000 in grants, the elimination of the sick leave requirement reserve and the tax appeal reserve (saving $1,150,000 between both), and the reduction of the fire salary and wages from $16.47 million to $16.40 million. Tensions between council members became heated when Councilman Dr. Sudhanshu Prasad said the budget should already have been passed by this time. "It [the budget] has to be done, even though this was something that should have been finished with before we were here," said Prasad, who, along with council members Perilstein, Wayne Mascola and Griffin-Ussak, became members of the council in January after winning the general election in 2007. Massarro agreed that the budget should have been passed earlier, but also said that this was not for lack of trying on the part of the previous council, and he asked Prasad what he thought the previous council did to not have the budget passed on time. Prasad said he did not want to give the impression that he was blaming anyone, simply that the budget should have been passed earlier. This caused Massarro to raise both his voice and his index finger. He said the council had petitioned Township Attorney Jeff Lehrer to get the budget documentation in 2007, and that the council also had asked the courts to step in. "If you can find one item, one item, sir, that shows where this council failed to do its due diligence to receive the budget documentation, then you show that to me, sir," said Massarro. In response to not having the line item budget details from the administration, the previous council had also attempted to construct its own budget amendment, authored mostly by former council member Sal Pizzi, which failed due to lack of support. The previous council had also attempted to hold a special meeting to speak with the various department heads, but none showed up. They had also attempted to get the state Department of Community Affairs to intervene, but were unsuccessful. Many on the council accused the administration of stonewalling them and the public. Prasad again said that it was not his intention to blame anyone, simply that he was stating the budget should have been passed earlier. "I would just like to reiterate that I was not blaming anybody. Just that this budget project should have been passed last year, and hopefully we will not come to this.…I'm not blaming anyone, but we all know the process, and I just say I would have preferred that this was settled last year when it was supposed to," said Prasad. At this point, resident Irene Wall, a regular at township meetings, shouted out from the audience that Mayor Jun Choi had withheld the documentation from the previous council, which was why the budget could not be passed last year. Diehl then asked Wall to please leave, to which Wall stated that she would have to be thrown out. Diehl then asked Deputy Chief Mel Vaticano to escort Wall out of the council chambers. She then said to Vaticano that she was not going and told him to get another officer to take her out. At that point, about four more officers coaxed her out. Diehl said he understands that people are passionate about the issues, but asked that future speakers act politely. "If … your intent is to make this a sideshow … then that's not what we're here for. We will not tolerate nor accept any outburst that resembles any disrespect toward others," said Diehl. The Edison Township budget was originally passed in September in order to make the deadline for extraordinary aid. After that, the Township Council had attempted to acquire the line item details in order to amend and then vote on the spending plan. The documentation was released to the council and the public in January 2008, and the mayor explained his three-year plan to stabilize property taxes. The initial amendment was rescinded on Feb. 13 due to a procedural error as well as some lingering questions on the budget document. While the fiscal year the township operates on will end in June, Department of Community Affairs spokesman Chris Donnelly said the state will work with Edison to try to get its budget passed and that there will not be a set deadline for when this needs to happen. "We are working with them on this issue, and therefore there is no need at this time to establish a definitive date by which they must adopt their budget. There may be a variety of reasons why a town is unable to adopt its budget by the statutory deadline (such as applying for extraordinary aid), and we are always willing to work with them to ensure it is adopted in as timely a manner as possible," Donnelly said in an e-mail.