08/15/2024
West Amwell Township Municipal Highlights
From Your Mayor and Deputy Mayor July 2024
Budget and Property Assessments
The township recently passed its budget for 2024 with the objective of keeping tax increases as low as possible through prudent stewardship of taxpayer funds and adopting a budget that has a very small tax rate increase of one cent ($0.01). This despite the significant increase in costs due to state mandated contract increases, state unfunded mandates required of townships even when there is no reasonable application, material increases in health care costs, inflation, and higher interest rates courtesy of the Biden administration. However, taxes paid by residents may increase in accordance with their respective property values as the township conducts reassessment in compliance with the Township’s Reassessment Program, approved by Hunterdon County Board of Taxation and reviewed by the State Division of Taxation. The purpose is to ensure uniform and equitable assessments. Key indices show housing values increased between 10% and 17% in the last year in Hunterdon County. The township is also negotiating renewal of the police contract through 2027 and passing an ordinance to provide funding to order a new fire truck for the fire company in accordance with the affirmative result from last year’s referendum.
Cannabis Contributing to Municipal Revenues
2024 is the first year in which commercial ratable revenues from cannabis are included in the township’s budget. There is a minimum of $150,000 of revenue in ratables in this year’s budget, representing several tax points. Taxes would be higher without this revenue in the budget. Moreover, revenues from this ratable should be increasing in future years as gross sales increase.
Cannabis Compliance
The township is monitoring the cannabis cultivator to ensure that the cultivator incorporate improvements in its building envelope and changes in its operating systems to mitigate odor that has escaped from the building to protect the public’s health, safety, welfare and enjoyment of their property.
Municipal Versus School Taxes
The municipality has no authority over school taxes. School taxes will be increasing as the school’s budget increases, to finance the cost of renovation of the Lambertville Public School and the construction of the new middle school on the high school grounds and to continue operations at West Amwell Elementary school for pre-K classes not forecast by school administrators (our small region will be operating four schools). Only 15% of the property taxes paid by township residents is allocated to the township for its budget. Approximately 67% of property tax gets allocated to the school, 15% is allocated to the county and 3% was assessed for open space.
Open Space
While the township has done a yeoman’s job in preserving farmland (more than 50% of the township has been preserved), there are several other properties currently being considered for preservation. We remain diligent with our efforts to maintain the rural nature of the township.
Affordable Housing – Round Four
The township will soon be subject to round four of the state’s mandate on affordable housing. Note that after the third round, the township is currently obligated to plan for 130 affordable housing units. Governor Murphy signed a new law into regulation to ensure NJ municipalities create their fair share of affordable housing, replacing the role previously played by the Council on Affordable Housing (COAH), which has been defunct for over a decade and is formally abolished under this bill. The algorithm to be used for this fourth round is unknown at this time but will be anything but fair.
As always, public opinion is highly regarded by our Township Committee, and we encourage you to voice your opinions.
Jim Cally, Mayor Gary Hoyer, Deputy Mayor
