Mayor criticizes state cuts
By ROBERT LINNEHAN
The Cherry Hill Sun
4/11/2008

Frustration mounts over municipal aid cuts and rising pension payouts.

Mayor Bernie Platt levied harsh comments upon the state at a special community meeting on April 3 for the possible cut in state funding and rising pension costs the township must face in its upcoming budget. He also expressed his frustrations at Gov. Corzine’s decision to effectively increase the Cherry Hill School District’s aid by $1.7 million, while municipalities statewide are seeing their aid decreased.

“This should equal savings for the taxpayers. Instead, (the school district) is presenting a budget with a $14 million increase,” he said. “Meanwhile, as we are trying to do all the right things – like making cuts and holding the line on spending and aggressively negotiating reality-based labor contracts – the governor has cut our funding by $1 million.”

If township aid is not restored, Platt said the cuts in funding might possibly affect such services as police, public works and code enforcement in the township. Furthermore, Platt said he and the township Council might have to consider consolidating the Cherry Hill Public Library or raising the municipal tax rate.

According to Platt, the township will be the victim of more than $1 million in cuts this year and possibly more to come in regard to municipal aid. The township is also paying out almost $4 million in state-mandated pension costs, an increase of about $3.6 million from the 2004 pension rate.

Since 2005, Platt said Cherry Hill has lost more than $3 million in state aid each year.

Platt issued several harsh comments to the state in regard to the municipal aid cuts and rising pension costs, as he’s also done in recent Council meetings.

“Trenton has shifted the burden of its mistakes and mismanagement onto the municipalities, including Cherry Hill,” he said to the assembled crowd. “The state is shifting responsibility for its failures onto municipalities while at the same time cutting funding to Cherry Hill.”

Amidst so much talk of cutting funds from the municipality and reducing services because of lack of state aid, Platt said he was disappointed to see such uncontrolled growth in the school district and fire district budgets in the past several years.

“It makes me angry because I have watched every other government agency around us grow at an uncontrollable rate and be rewarded for it. Every year, I have worked hard to balance our budget, but this year the mountain may be too steep to climb. So let’s get to the root cause of why our tax bills are out of control,” he said. “89 percent of your tax dollars are sent to the school district, Camden County and the fire district. We use 11 percent of your tax bill and deliver the best services in the state of New Jersey.”

Why does the school district want $4.5 million more out of its township residents, Platt asked, when the state has increased its aid to the district by 10 percent?

Before opening up the meeting to questions from the public, Platt strongly urged residents to call their local legislators to ask that the township’s funding be restored.

After the speech, several residents at the meeting expressed their dismay at Platt’s criticisms of the school district. Lisa Conn, a township resident, expressed her disappointment at Platt’s finger pointing to the school district.

“The school has so many uncontrollable costs, just like the township, which increases the budgets each year,” she said. “I wish you could view the district and the township as one and not pit us against each other.”

Bob Russo, township resident and vice president of the board of education, perhaps charged some of the harshest criticism against Platt. In front of an assembled crowd of about 50 audience members, he said he was appalled that a respected leader such as Platt would split the town in opposition of each other by so harshly criticizing the school district.

“This is the saddest night of my life, seeing a respected leader split the community apart like this,” Russo said. “The school district has also been dealing with cuts for the past 25 years. Our teachers received a raise this year that was below the country average. Nobody, Mr. Platt, moves to Cherry Hill for Mayor Platt or Bob Russo or the board or education. People move here for the schools themselves.”

Susan Bastnagel, township resident and public information officer for the school district, said the vast majority of the school budget funds are spent on things that directly affect student’s education for the better. Also, despite such a large budget, she said the district’s cost per pupil is well below the state average.

In order to compensate for the lack of municipal funding and rising cuts, Platt said he and township Council are considering several options. Despite the township spending more than 70 percent of its funds on public safety, Platt said he is not willing to lay off any of the township’s police officers.

He did say, though, that he is weighing several options that may see painful cuts at town hall and the consolidation of several departments in order to absorb the $7 million in lost revenue and payments.

“This includes moving human resources in our finance department, re-engineering and shrinking other departments to improve productivity, while cutting back on nonessential services within the recreation department,” he said. “As much as it pains us, we will continue to not fill positions and cut staff in order to do more with less. We will again take personnel to a low level to stay within these new cuts.”

Platt said he would like to cut back on the public library for savings, but the library’s budget is state regulated. The township is expected to send more than $5 million to the library this year.

The possible consolidation of the library – which Platt said takes up about 10 percent of the municipal budget – into the Camden County system for tax relief is an option that may be considered. It would effectively save the township about $5 million a year, he said, which could either be given back to taxpayers of Cherry Hill or used elsewhere in the township.

For future meetings or updated funding information, please visit the township Web site at cherry-hill.nj.us.