Municipalities divided over debt issues

The Princeton Packet reported that in July, the Borough had received a $1.68 million payment from the Township. The Borough also sent the Township a $258,109.24 check to pay for joint agencies administered by the Township.

Borough Chief Financial Officer Sandra Webb, however, maintains that the Township still owes the Borough $810,000 to cover expenses incurred by the Borough from 1989 through 2005. This is in addition to money owed to cover expenses incurred after 2005.

Some Borough Council members also allege that the Township owes the Borough an additional $1.5 million in revenue that the Township collected in fees from connecting residents to the jointly administered sewer system.

Reached by phone on Monday, Township Chief Financial Officer Kathryn Monzo called the disputes “business as usual between the Borough and the Township.”

The Borough and the Township each administer agencies that serve both communities, and the municipalities reimburse each other for the costs of running the agencies, Monzo explained.

Monzo said that the Township has yet to reimburse the Borough for debts incurred since 2005 but said she did not think the Township still owed the Borough any money from the 1989-2005 period.

“If there’s anything outstanding, it’s because we haven’t gotten documentation from the Borough here on this end,” Monzo said. “We have just finished going through some capital billing, and there are still some years that we are working on.”

Among the agencies that the Borough administers are the Board of Health, the Sewer Operating Committee, the Fire Department and the Animal Control Department, Monzo said.

Meanwhile, tensions were high at last Tuesday’s Borough Council meeting, as council members voiced their irritation with the Township. “Frankly, I am very frustrated, and I believe that the Township has acted dishonorably,” Councilman David Goldfarb said, according to The Princeton Packet.

Ill will between the Borough and the Township over sewer fees has been brewing since at least last December, when the issue almost derailed plans for the development of a former landfill site on River Road.

“All these issues between the Borough and the Township involving millions of dollars haven’t been resolved, and here we are giving over millions of dollars in deeds,” Councilman Roger Martindell said last December, when the Borough decided to add the Township to the deeds to the land so that development could proceed. “It’s a breach of duty to constituents, it’s embarrassing, and it shows how weak the Borough is.”

Kristin Appelget, the University’s director of community and regional affairs, said she did not think the disputes between the Borough and the Township would affect the University “any more or less than it has [affected] other taxpayers in the community.”

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Since most of its property is tax-exempt, the University makes an annual donation to the Borough, which in 2007 amounted to $1,092,000. The University makes no such payment to the Township, Appelget said.

At the joint Borough-Township meeting on recreation planning on Monday night, Township Committee member Chad Goerner criticized the joint committee system and argued that the best way to make the two governments work smoothly together is municipal integration.

“This dinking around the edges [with joint committees] isn’t going to solve anything ... only municipal government integration is really going to save the taxpayers money,” Goerner said.