Sunday, July 6, 2008
An educated mind...
*Written in College in 2004*
A Township UNITED? I’d rather it be DIVIDED!
“It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it”
-- Aristotle
In this essay I am going to explain why Colonia should secede from Woodbridge Township, then I am going to prove the feasibility of my plan with data collected from the Woodbridge Township Tax Office. When I was growing up in the cozy, upscale town of Colonia, that sounds nice doesn’t it, I always heard that I live in Woodbridge Township, not Colonia Township, “were just a section,” is what I was always told. Why is that? We have our own post office, our own zip code, our own little league, and our own schools, even our own little downtown area, which will finally be receiving a long overdue facelift. I was enrolled in the Woodbridge School System, I have to call the Woodbridge Police, if I ever choose to use our over priced community center; I must also go where else but Woodbridge. Quite frankly, I’m sick and tired of having to go to Woodbridge for everything, why can’t we be proud of Colonia for a change? The fact we can support ourselves with our own tax base is a known fact, if it isn’t, then I suggest you read the following. We have almost 18,000 residents and we are a mostly residential town with three primary commercial zones along Inman Ave, St Georges Ave, and Rt. 27. Our tax base is not a joking matter, I know your probably laughing at the thought of seceding from the sixth largest municipality in our state, but I’m not. Let me ask you a question with the deepest sincerity, “Being a part of Woodbridge Township is better for you because…why?” Ask yourself that and then think about the money that you spend each year on your tax bill, and then think about what you receive in return, or better yet, what more you could receive. I am an alumnus of this broken system that we call the Woodbridge Board of Education and will be the first to give credit to the teachers and other persons who did care, and still do, about the students. I am not going to say that the schools in Colonia are bad, they are not, but the room for improvement is awe-inspiring and the time to act is now. I am proposing we secede from the Township of Woodbridge and become a separate, self-governed township.
Why secede you ask? If we secede from the township, within four years or less we can consolidate our schools so that a Colonia resident goes to Colonia schools. By not having to support the other township residents; i.e. Avenel, Iselin, we will have enough room to pull our resident’s children from Iselin Schools and keep them in their own home towns’ school system. The Avenel kids will not be without a school either; we are not booting any kids to the street as some people may want you to believe, they can simply fill the vacancies left by our departing kids from JFK or decide to go to Woodbridge High. I am adamant on this being a main reason for secession, for the fact that a better school rating with less crowded classrooms means a higher resale value on our homes. There will be no regionalization or agreements to accept a certain portion of kids from surrounding towns; unless a certain program or need are truly the case in question, i.e. special education children, and other case-by-case circumstances. The rating and performance of our school system is of the utmost importance to me, and I’m not even a parent.
How will it work? Well here are answers to the most common concerns of the Colonia Taxpayer regarding secession:
· What happens to the police officers, teachers, town hall employees, and DPW employees in Woodbridge?
Since Woodbridge Township will be losing a large portion of tax revenue and will be forced to downsize their departments accordingly, we will simply give all current township employees preference in the new departments that will be created in our “new” township. We will certainly be looking for trained, professional employees who have proven there skills and character, and our Woodbridge Township workforce as it currently stands, has plenty of these cherished employees. There will be no guaranteed employment for all who apply, but the likelihood is that a majority of our workers will be transferred from Woodbridge, if they want to, and after Colonia residents get hiring preference, and if there is a hiring demand.
· Will we still receive the same municipal services?
Absolutely! It should be noted that I feel private garbage pick up will be a better decision for us to choose, and should be seriously considered. The reason is that it will alleviate the health care, pension, and payroll obligations that coincide with maintaining a Full-Time Sanitation Department. Woodbridge Township allocates $7.1 million to Solid Waste collection. The average cost of monthly private sanitation residential pick-up in our area is approximately $22-25 a month. If the town granted a municipal contract to a private hauler to pick up the entire town’s garbage, we can estimate it to be around $247 a year, per house, included in your tax bill. The savings and convenience associated with not having a Full-Time Sanitation Dept will be substantial. Most private haulers allow you to keep your garbage cans on the side of your house, alleviating the need to put your garbage to the curb, which will benefit our senior and disabled residents. It should be noted that we will have a DPW that will be responsible for tree/snow removal, sewer problems, routine township maintenance, recycling/grass/leaf removal, and also scheduled-only, once a month, special item trash pick up, i.e. appliances, carpets, mattresses, etc.
· Will our type of government be the same and will we still have wards?
Yes, we will use a Mayor and Council form of government that is currently in place in Woodbridge Twp. We will elect (5) five council members by ward or district, and have (4) at-large council members. I am also unwavering in the belief that it is vital to alleviate the Civil Service regulations that are currently the standard in Woodbridge Twp. Having less obligations that go with a non-civil service standard will make our “new” Colonia a better governed, more efficient, and safer township. We will have the ability to hire and maintain our township’s departments with the best-qualified employee that is available and do so in a fashionable time frame. Crime statistics show that municipalities that are not civil service usually have a lower violent crime and property crime rate, this having nothing to do with the policing procedures rather than the economic status that seems to go along with it.
· The main concerns, of course, that we are all wondering is, how much will our taxes rise and how can it be done?
Rise you ask, I don’t see why they will rise at all. I am not going to lie, there is the chance of a very small tax increase of $81 yearly, for approximately 37% (2,348 homes) of the households in Colonia, due to the different tax rates for the three different Fire Districts that cover our town. This tax increase that I estimate to be $81 a year and affect only 37% of the residents is a far cry from the $150 estimated increase that the current 2004-2005 Woodbridge Township School Budget is requesting, that will affect 100% of Colonia residents. We are privy to some of the grants that Woodbridge receives due to income and population size only because one reason, that we are part of the township. Once we secede from the township, we will be a town of 18,000 residents with an average household income of $67,900. That will make our needs seem much different considering the township as it now stands united, has 97,000 residents with an average household income of $60,300. Certain aids/grants we currently receive will not be available to us but others will be, and as to go along with the averages of other surrounding school districts, we’ll estimate that 84-90% of our school budget will be financed through property tax revenue. In my opinion, I believe it is not unreasonable to expect 88% of our School Budget to be funded through local property tax revenue; therefore I will use that percentage when calculating our tax needs. The other 10% will be raised through state aid, and the other 2% through federal aid. Now lets see how much tax money we actually have to play with.
There are about 6,254 residential households in Colonia, and to the best of my ability, I would estimate the annual tax bill for a resident of our town to be around $5,834. Simple math puts that at roughly $36.5 million in tax revenue from residential taxpayers alone. Now add the commercially zoned area of Inman Ave, Rt. 27, and St Georges and I can easily add another $1.5 million on to that, if not more. There is also the tax from Colonia Country Club but I do not know the actual amount they pay and whether they are assessed differently, as I presume they would be, but worst case, I could see at least $350,000 a year from them. Construction code fees at approximately $250,000 and Cable TV franchise fees at around $50,000. I would also add roughly $250,000 for receipts from delinquent taxes, and another $580,000 in Misc. revenues. The Municipal Court should produce about $270,000. If one were to peg our tax base at roughly $39.75 million, I believe that would be right on track, if not excessively conservative.
~~ So now we have an estimate of our tax base…
We then must find out how much it costs to fund the various departments throughout the town and the Colonia Board of Education (doesn’t that sound nice). I would strongly recommend outsourcing all of our services to the lowest priced, yet most productive and reliable bidder, when it comes to any municipal contract, such as the negotiating a garbage collection contract. I am sure we can obtain some sort of discount from the standard rate of $22.95 per month, being that we will allow or provide 6,000 new customers to the private sanitation industry if we choose to.
ALL professional or legal work should also be competitively and publicly bid on, this will reduce legal fees and interest rates on bonds or banking services. We might even try internet-based competitive bidding, as I believe South Brunswick has just successfully tried and they received a lower rate than they first expected.
As a pilot program, we should also look into the cost of having various town landscapers’ provide the lawn care for town owned property, excluding the schools. I can estimate the amount of township owned land at approx 10-15 acres at most. I would estimate the Lawn Care contracts to total between $30,000-$45,000 yearly, rather than retain the cost of a year-round, fully staffed Buildings and Grounds Department and their equipment. The school will retain their grounds/building crew, as the Board of Education will be responsible for their own property upkeep. This would not only obviously help town businesses, but if it is legal, maybe we can add a stipulation stating to win a Municipal lawn care contract, that company must employ a certain number of qualified town residents. This will provide us with a cheaper wage/salary expense due to the fact we will not retain a year-round, fully staffed Buildings and Grounds Department for lawn maintenance, yet we will have sufficient manpower to keep our town buildings and property in safe, working conditions. Simply put, the fewer town employees we have, the cheaper it is for us. The average state/municipal employee’s health coverage alone is estimated at $14,000 and will only be going up.
Now onto the biggest single expense we have, our newly formed, prestigious, blue ribbon, Colonia School District. This will be a “Colonia Only” School District. We have four elementary schools; Oak Ridge has 341 students, Claremont has 346, Penn Ave has 292, and Lynn Crest has 420, providing approximately 1400 students in that level alone as it currently is situated. I will change the enrollment from Lynn Crest’s total due to the fact that the students we will drop who reside in Iselin, we will just gain back from Colonia resident’s who are removed from Iselin schools. This calculation will be used for middle and high school as well. For those who do not know, there are a small portion of Colonia children, who live near Chain O’Hills and Merrill Park who attend Iselin Schools. The fact that 50% of Lynn Crests’ enrollment is bussed from other parts of Woodbridge will be accounted for and I will deduct approximately 200 kids from the elementary level enrollment, thus providing us a new total of 1,200 students (estimate).
We have (4) four idyllically situated elementary schools, the only problem I see right now, if we keep the districting or zoning the same, is why kids who live near West St and also north of Lake Ave, west of the Parkway, go to Pennsylvania Ave School 27? I’d recommend rezoning the districts, of course, taking into consideration the amount of students who are currently enrolled and soon to be enrolled to assure an adequate teacher to student ratio and the distance of the child’s home to their “home” school. Extending Lynn Crest’s district deeper into the estate section could be an option, and another could be changing Oak Ridge’s district to cover most, if not all, the area west of the parkway and north of Inman Ave, and within (3) three blocks south of Inman Ave. There are many options to consider, and a current enrollment sheet is needed to accurately propose a “redistricting option.”
Our middle school has approximately 600 students. I currently see the averages of our elementary school enrollment to be around 200 students per grade, and will leave this enrollment as it currently stands. Now the tricky part, our high school, the esteemed Colonia High School currently enrolls 1,287 students and as per my previous calculations, we will leave the Iselin/Colonia student exchange intact to cancel each other out. Avenel is a different story though; there are two elementary schools in Avenel and one middle school, about 425 students per elementary school and approximately 740 in the middle school. Using the fair, if not overwhelmingly lower estimate of half of their students going to Colonia High and the other half going to Woodbridge High, that would put their enrollment rate at 125 per class, or roughly 500 Avenel residents being taught in Colonia High School. So now the final numbers in a “Colonia Only” school District, 1,200 in elementary, 600 in middle school, and to my calculated estimate, about 700-800 in our high school, this gives us a total of 2,500-2,600 students in our public schools that actually live in our town.
So, we have approximately 2,600 students in our school system, and at an estimated cost of $9,800 per child, that would cost $25.5 million with 13% of that being picked up by state aid/grants or other funds. Our final bill presented to the Mr. And Mrs. Taxpayer, $22.44 million. The $9,800 figure is a lower estimated cost per pupil as compared to Woodbridge Township’s current cost of $10,300, which I believe we can truly attain. We will use various cost-cutting procedures and most noticeably, have a much lower administrative cost. We can cap accumulated sick time buyout at a teachers and also police officer’s retirement, if it is not already done, to a maximum of $20-$30,000. We can also look into privatizing the lunch service in our schools; to alleviate the need for a town employed cafeteria staff. I believe these and many other cost-cutting measures would not sacrifice any educational service or course provided to the children. Instead of reflecting this in a lower tax rate, maybe it would be better to institute newer, interesting courses or more extra-curricular activities to our children using that money, again, this will and can be discussed or decided at a later time.
The newly formed, Colonia Police Dept, will be allocated an approximate budget of $4.44 million for Wages/Salary and an additional $570,000 for Misc. Expenses. I estimate a need for 45 sworn police officers and 8 civilian dispatchers, and 5 civilian employees for secretarial/other related purposes. The municipal court should have approximately 5-7 employees.
Police Department – Sworn Officers
Salaries and Wages $3,637,000
Other Expenses $265,000
Police Department – Dispatchers / Secretaries
Salaries and Wages $552,000
Other Expenses $149,000
Police Department – Municipal Court
Salaries and Wages $252,000
Other Expenses $235,000
TOTAL $5,090,000
Other main expenditures I can think of will be:
Henry Inman Library at approximately $650,000
General Administration at $1,260,000
Colonia D.P.W. (minus a Full Sanitation Dept) at $1,400,000
Volunteer Fire Dept at $1,300,000
Health & Animal Control Services Division at $110,000
Utility Expense at $340,000
General Spending on misc. expenses at around $1,500,000.
Senior Citizens Affairs at $65,000
Dept of Recreation at $165,000
Code Enforcement at $200,000
Debt Payments at $1,480,000
We would have to contribute to the Social Security system approximately $620,000 and cost of Benefits/Insurance for town employees at $1.9 million and group insurance for Township owned property/vehicles would be another $350,000.
I also believe in keeping the Senior Citizen, Veteran, and Disabled Person Property Tax rebate and the amount will be determined by our fiscal needs, but I see no reason why it would change from the current $250, we might even be able to raise it to $300. The municipal budget I foresee would be around $16.43 million with residents paying for there own garbage pick up, and $1.55 million more, totaling $17.98 million, if we decide to include garbage pickup in our taxes as it is currently, but be contracted to a Private Sanitation firm through a Municipal Contract.
The cry that will be coming from other sections and even louder from town hall is “What about us?” Well to them I say it’s been a long time coming. Even if they try to expunge $15-20 million of debt from the ridiculous budgets they approve and try to pass it on to us as our “fair share”, we will fight that. We will look back at the bond referendums and what that money went to, we would assume some debt without a doubt, but within reason. The worst case, or highest amount, will be 18% of the currently outstanding $71,000,000, which equals $12,800,000, paid in full to Woodbridge Township. I feel this to be slightly high, when considering the improvements and convenience that the other sections have received throughout the years compared to what we have, but once again, I am telling you the true facts with the worst case, meaning the highest costing, scenario. If we issue a bond for this amount and an additional $6.2 million for immediate infrastructure construction or renovation, we can add $1.48 million to our budget for debt payments. Remember that we will have our own debt to pay when we refurbish OUR Municipal Building and Police Department, probably at a cost of $3.5 million. We can use an additional $3 million to immediately improve our schools with repairs and upgrades that should have been done years ago. The remaining $700,000 is for emergency appropriations and discretionary spending we will set aside if the need arises.
The Evergreen Senior Center is a superb, centrally located property, and renovating that building for the Senior’s and adding a Municipal Court, Police Department, and Town Hall to it as well, along with sufficient parking, would be extremely beneficial for the township at large. We could build a Senior Citizen Fitness Center if they would like and complete a full renovation to make the entire building more accommodating for the YMCA and the seniors. I envision the first floor to be shared by Town Hall and the Senior Center/YMCA and the second floor will be the home of our Police Department and Municipal Court. We will have Colonia Middle School’s parking lot redesigned along with the current Evergreen Center as well, so to accommodate the anticipated crowd during Council Meetings, Court nights, and other organized events.
I also believe School 2&16 would make a great, truly centralized location for a town hall, municipal court, and police department. I am opposed to eminent domain and the way that many municipalities have abused the right for commercial reasons, so I would try to find a suitable building that would not disturb the surrounding area and the neighbors, without pursuing that route. We would have to serious look at the parking requirements needed for such a building, being that we would not want to overcrowd our local streets in that area during a council meeting or court night. In my opinion, this location is the better of the two.
To summarize the estimated tax levy on our citizens will be as follows:
School Budget: $25.5 million
Municipal Budget: $16.43 – 17.98 million (additional $500,000 for rebates?)
County Taxes $6.10 million
State/Federal/County Aid:
Municipal Aid $3,500,000
School Aid $3,080,000
County Aid $1,450,000
TOTAL $8.03 million
Revenue to be raised by Local Taxes
School Budget $22,420,000
Municipal Budget $12,930,000 - $14,480,000
County Budget $4,650,000
Local tax collected: $40,000,000 - $41,550,000
As you can see, we are right on line with our revenue and appropriations, if we don’t include garbage pick up. If we decide to include garbage pick up, as many of our residents are accustomed to, then the average homeowner in Colonia would see a $248, or $0.26 per $100, increase in their property taxes. My plan is well thought out and a feasible one to work with. The best part is that our town and the decisions made on its behalf would finally be ours for the taking and we can finally produce a School District that our kids deserve, and our tax money has been waiting for. The $19 million, 20 year Bond we will need to build our infrastructure (Town Hall, cost of secession), can be paid off in 18 and half years, average of the bonds, at a rate of 4.7%, making yearly payments totaling $1.54 million, or we can take 20 years, making payments totaling $1.42 million.
Over the years to follow, our tax money will pay down OUR debt and not continually go to other sections of the township. We should consume a portion of Woodbridge Twp’s debt, but the exact amount will be scrutinized, believe me. Putting a swing set in the Inman Ave Park by the Getty Station and putting a green arrow at the Chain O’Hills/New Dover Rd intersection is a nice gesture by our Town leaders, but the time has come for change. I for one, am fed up of supporting the Woodbridge Town Council and the Board of Education, more so the latter, and feel if given the chance, although it will be a daunting task, we will inevitably be successful. Exceeding this town’s expectations will be a challenge, one I am willing to take. This can and will be accomplished with the right people. Look at my calculations and the estimated million’s in revenue surplus, which would be depleted after adding improvements to the schools and possibly, dare I say, a tax decrease? The point of this is that it will be OUR debt, not other sections, and it will be improving OUR hometown. If a tax increase is needed, it will go to directly benefit Colonia. It’s about time that we use OUR money, for us!
The math alone proves that Colonia, after seceding, can be self supportive and governed. I used towns from New Jersey such as Hawthorne, Clark, Cranford, Metuchen, and Lyndhurst to equate my estimated budget for municipal and school expenses. I reviewed their Municipal Budget’s and School Budget’s and used them to estimate my Colonia Municipal and School Budget. For my property tax estimates, I used two methods.
My first method was using the true property tax of the most common style of house and lot size and coming up with about $4,800 for about 5,254 houses in Colonia. I then used the true property tax of the average style and lot size in the Estate Section and came up with $10,100. I figured for every 5 homes in normal Colonia, that there was at least 1 in the estate section, and then using the calculations of 5,000 houses X $4,800 = $24,000,000 and the Estate’s 1,254 houses X $10,100 = $12,665,400 and adding them together, I came up with $36,645,400.
The next method, a more accurate one I believe, was using the Colonia Fire District 12 assessed property area of $355,194,000 in which 93.38% is residential property, totaling $331,680,400 in assessed value. (The assessment rate in Woodbridge Township is 41.44%, which means an average house in the district, with an indicated market value of $204,900, assesses for $84,900.) The tax rate for District 12 totals $6.14 per $100, meaning the average household pays $5,222.20 in taxes. (.80 county, 1.18 Muni, 3.79 school, .07 open space, .30 Fire)
The problem with this equation, as recommended by the Woodbridge Township Assessor, is that it only represents Fire District 12 and the 3,906 residential homes/units it encompasses. In fact, there are 6,254 residential units in Colonia. So now we must come up with the other remaining households in our town. To do so, we will simply take 6,254 and subtract 3,906, which equals 2,348. Of the remaining 2,348 residential units/homes, they are split up between Fire District #5 and #11. Iselin Fire District 11 has a tax rate at $0.25 and primarily covers the estate section and Avenel Fire District 5 covers the remaining Chain O’Hills section of Colonia, and has a tax rate of $0.19.
If we take a conservative split of 500 houses in the estate section and 1,848 in the remaining Chain O’Hills section, the remaining tax base can be estimated at $15,171,000. I calculated the 500 homes in the estate section with an average tax bill of $10,200, which I believe to be somewhat conservative, totaling $5,100,000. The 1,848 homes in the Chain O’Hills section would be calculated at the average of $5,450, being that the size of the lot’s and homes are assessed at a little more than the other homes in Fire District #12, totaling $10,071,000. I have found the average home in Colonia is assessed at $93,200, and the average tax rate per resident is $6.26 per $100.
Our total tax revenue per Fire District is:
Fire District 12: (67% of Colonia) $20,397,000
Fire District 11: (Estate Section) $5,100,000
Fire District 05: (Chain O’hills) $10,071,000
Total Residential Tax $35,568,000
The remaining 6.62% of our tax base is not residential; so we can assume they are commercially zoned businesses, and I can accurately estimate a total of 120 commercially zoned lots. I average these lots at $12,500 in taxes, equaling roughly $1,500,000.
Again, this is nothing more than an estimate and anyone else’s opinions or advice on how or why this will or will not work, I ask you to please PROVE ME WRONG. There is the question floating around now, that Woodbridge Township deserves more state aid, funds, and services for various needs, primarily their board of education, which I whole-heartedly agree with. Woodbridge Township currently receives $61,790,858 in State Aid to reduce the property tax burden on its residents. Colonia represents 18% of its total households, 18% of its total population, and roughly 20-21% of its school enrollment, yet it provides 24% of the revenues raised through property tax! My question to you, Mr. and Mrs. Colonia resident is, don’t you think Colonia deserves a little more township aid, township funds, and township services? Then again, why ask for help from someone else, when we can support ourselves and reach a better outcome in the meantime. With just 13% of the aid that Woodbridge receives, we can succeed. If we don’t unfairly support the rest of the sections in this township, then I say to Woodbridge, keep the remaining $54.3 million in aid. Their municipal and school budgets should drop to $65 million and $110.7 million, respectively. Their budget total of $175 million minus $54.5 million in aid, totals a $120.5 million levy to be collected through property tax or other revenue. This amount for the “new” Woodbridge Township consisting of 10,665 enrolled students, 79,600 residents, and roughly 28,500 households, should make their tax bill, dare I say, cheaper! I’m sorry, is this a win-win situation for the township at large and Colonia residents? This is not a democrat or republican issue, this is not a crazy resident with nothing better to do issue, this is an issue that involves some serious thought. We have a school budget that is inflated with questionable costs, a school system that is under used by residents, and a town that gets so little of what they truly deserve. To the Colonia resident reading this, don’t you want a safer, more efficiently run town with a better School District? If so, it’s time to wake up! You want to know the true cost of a better school district and safer neighborhood; the answer is an extra $248 per year. Over the course of 10 years, the average homeowner will pay an extra $2,500 for the privilege of living in a quiet, safe township with a highly rated school system and will probably see the value of their house go up, not including market price rise or inflation, at least $25,000, if not more. We are a beautiful town with a diverse population; we have small cape cods and magnificent estate homes, we have family’s just starting out and retiree’s looking for some relaxation. We have all this and nothing to show for it. Just imagine saying, “I live in Colonia” and to have it truly mean just that.
“It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it”
-- Aristotle
A Township UNITED? I’d rather it be DIVIDED!
“It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it”
-- Aristotle
In this essay I am going to explain why Colonia should secede from Woodbridge Township, then I am going to prove the feasibility of my plan with data collected from the Woodbridge Township Tax Office. When I was growing up in the cozy, upscale town of Colonia, that sounds nice doesn’t it, I always heard that I live in Woodbridge Township, not Colonia Township, “were just a section,” is what I was always told. Why is that? We have our own post office, our own zip code, our own little league, and our own schools, even our own little downtown area, which will finally be receiving a long overdue facelift. I was enrolled in the Woodbridge School System, I have to call the Woodbridge Police, if I ever choose to use our over priced community center; I must also go where else but Woodbridge. Quite frankly, I’m sick and tired of having to go to Woodbridge for everything, why can’t we be proud of Colonia for a change? The fact we can support ourselves with our own tax base is a known fact, if it isn’t, then I suggest you read the following. We have almost 18,000 residents and we are a mostly residential town with three primary commercial zones along Inman Ave, St Georges Ave, and Rt. 27. Our tax base is not a joking matter, I know your probably laughing at the thought of seceding from the sixth largest municipality in our state, but I’m not. Let me ask you a question with the deepest sincerity, “Being a part of Woodbridge Township is better for you because…why?” Ask yourself that and then think about the money that you spend each year on your tax bill, and then think about what you receive in return, or better yet, what more you could receive. I am an alumnus of this broken system that we call the Woodbridge Board of Education and will be the first to give credit to the teachers and other persons who did care, and still do, about the students. I am not going to say that the schools in Colonia are bad, they are not, but the room for improvement is awe-inspiring and the time to act is now. I am proposing we secede from the Township of Woodbridge and become a separate, self-governed township.
Why secede you ask? If we secede from the township, within four years or less we can consolidate our schools so that a Colonia resident goes to Colonia schools. By not having to support the other township residents; i.e. Avenel, Iselin, we will have enough room to pull our resident’s children from Iselin Schools and keep them in their own home towns’ school system. The Avenel kids will not be without a school either; we are not booting any kids to the street as some people may want you to believe, they can simply fill the vacancies left by our departing kids from JFK or decide to go to Woodbridge High. I am adamant on this being a main reason for secession, for the fact that a better school rating with less crowded classrooms means a higher resale value on our homes. There will be no regionalization or agreements to accept a certain portion of kids from surrounding towns; unless a certain program or need are truly the case in question, i.e. special education children, and other case-by-case circumstances. The rating and performance of our school system is of the utmost importance to me, and I’m not even a parent.
How will it work? Well here are answers to the most common concerns of the Colonia Taxpayer regarding secession:
· What happens to the police officers, teachers, town hall employees, and DPW employees in Woodbridge?
Since Woodbridge Township will be losing a large portion of tax revenue and will be forced to downsize their departments accordingly, we will simply give all current township employees preference in the new departments that will be created in our “new” township. We will certainly be looking for trained, professional employees who have proven there skills and character, and our Woodbridge Township workforce as it currently stands, has plenty of these cherished employees. There will be no guaranteed employment for all who apply, but the likelihood is that a majority of our workers will be transferred from Woodbridge, if they want to, and after Colonia residents get hiring preference, and if there is a hiring demand.
· Will we still receive the same municipal services?
Absolutely! It should be noted that I feel private garbage pick up will be a better decision for us to choose, and should be seriously considered. The reason is that it will alleviate the health care, pension, and payroll obligations that coincide with maintaining a Full-Time Sanitation Department. Woodbridge Township allocates $7.1 million to Solid Waste collection. The average cost of monthly private sanitation residential pick-up in our area is approximately $22-25 a month. If the town granted a municipal contract to a private hauler to pick up the entire town’s garbage, we can estimate it to be around $247 a year, per house, included in your tax bill. The savings and convenience associated with not having a Full-Time Sanitation Dept will be substantial. Most private haulers allow you to keep your garbage cans on the side of your house, alleviating the need to put your garbage to the curb, which will benefit our senior and disabled residents. It should be noted that we will have a DPW that will be responsible for tree/snow removal, sewer problems, routine township maintenance, recycling/grass/leaf removal, and also scheduled-only, once a month, special item trash pick up, i.e. appliances, carpets, mattresses, etc.
· Will our type of government be the same and will we still have wards?
Yes, we will use a Mayor and Council form of government that is currently in place in Woodbridge Twp. We will elect (5) five council members by ward or district, and have (4) at-large council members. I am also unwavering in the belief that it is vital to alleviate the Civil Service regulations that are currently the standard in Woodbridge Twp. Having less obligations that go with a non-civil service standard will make our “new” Colonia a better governed, more efficient, and safer township. We will have the ability to hire and maintain our township’s departments with the best-qualified employee that is available and do so in a fashionable time frame. Crime statistics show that municipalities that are not civil service usually have a lower violent crime and property crime rate, this having nothing to do with the policing procedures rather than the economic status that seems to go along with it.
· The main concerns, of course, that we are all wondering is, how much will our taxes rise and how can it be done?
Rise you ask, I don’t see why they will rise at all. I am not going to lie, there is the chance of a very small tax increase of $81 yearly, for approximately 37% (2,348 homes) of the households in Colonia, due to the different tax rates for the three different Fire Districts that cover our town. This tax increase that I estimate to be $81 a year and affect only 37% of the residents is a far cry from the $150 estimated increase that the current 2004-2005 Woodbridge Township School Budget is requesting, that will affect 100% of Colonia residents. We are privy to some of the grants that Woodbridge receives due to income and population size only because one reason, that we are part of the township. Once we secede from the township, we will be a town of 18,000 residents with an average household income of $67,900. That will make our needs seem much different considering the township as it now stands united, has 97,000 residents with an average household income of $60,300. Certain aids/grants we currently receive will not be available to us but others will be, and as to go along with the averages of other surrounding school districts, we’ll estimate that 84-90% of our school budget will be financed through property tax revenue. In my opinion, I believe it is not unreasonable to expect 88% of our School Budget to be funded through local property tax revenue; therefore I will use that percentage when calculating our tax needs. The other 10% will be raised through state aid, and the other 2% through federal aid. Now lets see how much tax money we actually have to play with.
There are about 6,254 residential households in Colonia, and to the best of my ability, I would estimate the annual tax bill for a resident of our town to be around $5,834. Simple math puts that at roughly $36.5 million in tax revenue from residential taxpayers alone. Now add the commercially zoned area of Inman Ave, Rt. 27, and St Georges and I can easily add another $1.5 million on to that, if not more. There is also the tax from Colonia Country Club but I do not know the actual amount they pay and whether they are assessed differently, as I presume they would be, but worst case, I could see at least $350,000 a year from them. Construction code fees at approximately $250,000 and Cable TV franchise fees at around $50,000. I would also add roughly $250,000 for receipts from delinquent taxes, and another $580,000 in Misc. revenues. The Municipal Court should produce about $270,000. If one were to peg our tax base at roughly $39.75 million, I believe that would be right on track, if not excessively conservative.
~~ So now we have an estimate of our tax base…
We then must find out how much it costs to fund the various departments throughout the town and the Colonia Board of Education (doesn’t that sound nice). I would strongly recommend outsourcing all of our services to the lowest priced, yet most productive and reliable bidder, when it comes to any municipal contract, such as the negotiating a garbage collection contract. I am sure we can obtain some sort of discount from the standard rate of $22.95 per month, being that we will allow or provide 6,000 new customers to the private sanitation industry if we choose to.
ALL professional or legal work should also be competitively and publicly bid on, this will reduce legal fees and interest rates on bonds or banking services. We might even try internet-based competitive bidding, as I believe South Brunswick has just successfully tried and they received a lower rate than they first expected.
As a pilot program, we should also look into the cost of having various town landscapers’ provide the lawn care for town owned property, excluding the schools. I can estimate the amount of township owned land at approx 10-15 acres at most. I would estimate the Lawn Care contracts to total between $30,000-$45,000 yearly, rather than retain the cost of a year-round, fully staffed Buildings and Grounds Department and their equipment. The school will retain their grounds/building crew, as the Board of Education will be responsible for their own property upkeep. This would not only obviously help town businesses, but if it is legal, maybe we can add a stipulation stating to win a Municipal lawn care contract, that company must employ a certain number of qualified town residents. This will provide us with a cheaper wage/salary expense due to the fact we will not retain a year-round, fully staffed Buildings and Grounds Department for lawn maintenance, yet we will have sufficient manpower to keep our town buildings and property in safe, working conditions. Simply put, the fewer town employees we have, the cheaper it is for us. The average state/municipal employee’s health coverage alone is estimated at $14,000 and will only be going up.
Now onto the biggest single expense we have, our newly formed, prestigious, blue ribbon, Colonia School District. This will be a “Colonia Only” School District. We have four elementary schools; Oak Ridge has 341 students, Claremont has 346, Penn Ave has 292, and Lynn Crest has 420, providing approximately 1400 students in that level alone as it currently is situated. I will change the enrollment from Lynn Crest’s total due to the fact that the students we will drop who reside in Iselin, we will just gain back from Colonia resident’s who are removed from Iselin schools. This calculation will be used for middle and high school as well. For those who do not know, there are a small portion of Colonia children, who live near Chain O’Hills and Merrill Park who attend Iselin Schools. The fact that 50% of Lynn Crests’ enrollment is bussed from other parts of Woodbridge will be accounted for and I will deduct approximately 200 kids from the elementary level enrollment, thus providing us a new total of 1,200 students (estimate).
We have (4) four idyllically situated elementary schools, the only problem I see right now, if we keep the districting or zoning the same, is why kids who live near West St and also north of Lake Ave, west of the Parkway, go to Pennsylvania Ave School 27? I’d recommend rezoning the districts, of course, taking into consideration the amount of students who are currently enrolled and soon to be enrolled to assure an adequate teacher to student ratio and the distance of the child’s home to their “home” school. Extending Lynn Crest’s district deeper into the estate section could be an option, and another could be changing Oak Ridge’s district to cover most, if not all, the area west of the parkway and north of Inman Ave, and within (3) three blocks south of Inman Ave. There are many options to consider, and a current enrollment sheet is needed to accurately propose a “redistricting option.”
Our middle school has approximately 600 students. I currently see the averages of our elementary school enrollment to be around 200 students per grade, and will leave this enrollment as it currently stands. Now the tricky part, our high school, the esteemed Colonia High School currently enrolls 1,287 students and as per my previous calculations, we will leave the Iselin/Colonia student exchange intact to cancel each other out. Avenel is a different story though; there are two elementary schools in Avenel and one middle school, about 425 students per elementary school and approximately 740 in the middle school. Using the fair, if not overwhelmingly lower estimate of half of their students going to Colonia High and the other half going to Woodbridge High, that would put their enrollment rate at 125 per class, or roughly 500 Avenel residents being taught in Colonia High School. So now the final numbers in a “Colonia Only” school District, 1,200 in elementary, 600 in middle school, and to my calculated estimate, about 700-800 in our high school, this gives us a total of 2,500-2,600 students in our public schools that actually live in our town.
So, we have approximately 2,600 students in our school system, and at an estimated cost of $9,800 per child, that would cost $25.5 million with 13% of that being picked up by state aid/grants or other funds. Our final bill presented to the Mr. And Mrs. Taxpayer, $22.44 million. The $9,800 figure is a lower estimated cost per pupil as compared to Woodbridge Township’s current cost of $10,300, which I believe we can truly attain. We will use various cost-cutting procedures and most noticeably, have a much lower administrative cost. We can cap accumulated sick time buyout at a teachers and also police officer’s retirement, if it is not already done, to a maximum of $20-$30,000. We can also look into privatizing the lunch service in our schools; to alleviate the need for a town employed cafeteria staff. I believe these and many other cost-cutting measures would not sacrifice any educational service or course provided to the children. Instead of reflecting this in a lower tax rate, maybe it would be better to institute newer, interesting courses or more extra-curricular activities to our children using that money, again, this will and can be discussed or decided at a later time.
The newly formed, Colonia Police Dept, will be allocated an approximate budget of $4.44 million for Wages/Salary and an additional $570,000 for Misc. Expenses. I estimate a need for 45 sworn police officers and 8 civilian dispatchers, and 5 civilian employees for secretarial/other related purposes. The municipal court should have approximately 5-7 employees.
Police Department – Sworn Officers
Salaries and Wages $3,637,000
Other Expenses $265,000
Police Department – Dispatchers / Secretaries
Salaries and Wages $552,000
Other Expenses $149,000
Police Department – Municipal Court
Salaries and Wages $252,000
Other Expenses $235,000
TOTAL $5,090,000
Other main expenditures I can think of will be:
Henry Inman Library at approximately $650,000
General Administration at $1,260,000
Colonia D.P.W. (minus a Full Sanitation Dept) at $1,400,000
Volunteer Fire Dept at $1,300,000
Health & Animal Control Services Division at $110,000
Utility Expense at $340,000
General Spending on misc. expenses at around $1,500,000.
Senior Citizens Affairs at $65,000
Dept of Recreation at $165,000
Code Enforcement at $200,000
Debt Payments at $1,480,000
We would have to contribute to the Social Security system approximately $620,000 and cost of Benefits/Insurance for town employees at $1.9 million and group insurance for Township owned property/vehicles would be another $350,000.
I also believe in keeping the Senior Citizen, Veteran, and Disabled Person Property Tax rebate and the amount will be determined by our fiscal needs, but I see no reason why it would change from the current $250, we might even be able to raise it to $300. The municipal budget I foresee would be around $16.43 million with residents paying for there own garbage pick up, and $1.55 million more, totaling $17.98 million, if we decide to include garbage pickup in our taxes as it is currently, but be contracted to a Private Sanitation firm through a Municipal Contract.
The cry that will be coming from other sections and even louder from town hall is “What about us?” Well to them I say it’s been a long time coming. Even if they try to expunge $15-20 million of debt from the ridiculous budgets they approve and try to pass it on to us as our “fair share”, we will fight that. We will look back at the bond referendums and what that money went to, we would assume some debt without a doubt, but within reason. The worst case, or highest amount, will be 18% of the currently outstanding $71,000,000, which equals $12,800,000, paid in full to Woodbridge Township. I feel this to be slightly high, when considering the improvements and convenience that the other sections have received throughout the years compared to what we have, but once again, I am telling you the true facts with the worst case, meaning the highest costing, scenario. If we issue a bond for this amount and an additional $6.2 million for immediate infrastructure construction or renovation, we can add $1.48 million to our budget for debt payments. Remember that we will have our own debt to pay when we refurbish OUR Municipal Building and Police Department, probably at a cost of $3.5 million. We can use an additional $3 million to immediately improve our schools with repairs and upgrades that should have been done years ago. The remaining $700,000 is for emergency appropriations and discretionary spending we will set aside if the need arises.
The Evergreen Senior Center is a superb, centrally located property, and renovating that building for the Senior’s and adding a Municipal Court, Police Department, and Town Hall to it as well, along with sufficient parking, would be extremely beneficial for the township at large. We could build a Senior Citizen Fitness Center if they would like and complete a full renovation to make the entire building more accommodating for the YMCA and the seniors. I envision the first floor to be shared by Town Hall and the Senior Center/YMCA and the second floor will be the home of our Police Department and Municipal Court. We will have Colonia Middle School’s parking lot redesigned along with the current Evergreen Center as well, so to accommodate the anticipated crowd during Council Meetings, Court nights, and other organized events.
I also believe School 2&16 would make a great, truly centralized location for a town hall, municipal court, and police department. I am opposed to eminent domain and the way that many municipalities have abused the right for commercial reasons, so I would try to find a suitable building that would not disturb the surrounding area and the neighbors, without pursuing that route. We would have to serious look at the parking requirements needed for such a building, being that we would not want to overcrowd our local streets in that area during a council meeting or court night. In my opinion, this location is the better of the two.
To summarize the estimated tax levy on our citizens will be as follows:
School Budget: $25.5 million
Municipal Budget: $16.43 – 17.98 million (additional $500,000 for rebates?)
County Taxes $6.10 million
State/Federal/County Aid:
Municipal Aid $3,500,000
School Aid $3,080,000
County Aid $1,450,000
TOTAL $8.03 million
Revenue to be raised by Local Taxes
School Budget $22,420,000
Municipal Budget $12,930,000 - $14,480,000
County Budget $4,650,000
Local tax collected: $40,000,000 - $41,550,000
As you can see, we are right on line with our revenue and appropriations, if we don’t include garbage pick up. If we decide to include garbage pick up, as many of our residents are accustomed to, then the average homeowner in Colonia would see a $248, or $0.26 per $100, increase in their property taxes. My plan is well thought out and a feasible one to work with. The best part is that our town and the decisions made on its behalf would finally be ours for the taking and we can finally produce a School District that our kids deserve, and our tax money has been waiting for. The $19 million, 20 year Bond we will need to build our infrastructure (Town Hall, cost of secession), can be paid off in 18 and half years, average of the bonds, at a rate of 4.7%, making yearly payments totaling $1.54 million, or we can take 20 years, making payments totaling $1.42 million.
Over the years to follow, our tax money will pay down OUR debt and not continually go to other sections of the township. We should consume a portion of Woodbridge Twp’s debt, but the exact amount will be scrutinized, believe me. Putting a swing set in the Inman Ave Park by the Getty Station and putting a green arrow at the Chain O’Hills/New Dover Rd intersection is a nice gesture by our Town leaders, but the time has come for change. I for one, am fed up of supporting the Woodbridge Town Council and the Board of Education, more so the latter, and feel if given the chance, although it will be a daunting task, we will inevitably be successful. Exceeding this town’s expectations will be a challenge, one I am willing to take. This can and will be accomplished with the right people. Look at my calculations and the estimated million’s in revenue surplus, which would be depleted after adding improvements to the schools and possibly, dare I say, a tax decrease? The point of this is that it will be OUR debt, not other sections, and it will be improving OUR hometown. If a tax increase is needed, it will go to directly benefit Colonia. It’s about time that we use OUR money, for us!
The math alone proves that Colonia, after seceding, can be self supportive and governed. I used towns from New Jersey such as Hawthorne, Clark, Cranford, Metuchen, and Lyndhurst to equate my estimated budget for municipal and school expenses. I reviewed their Municipal Budget’s and School Budget’s and used them to estimate my Colonia Municipal and School Budget. For my property tax estimates, I used two methods.
My first method was using the true property tax of the most common style of house and lot size and coming up with about $4,800 for about 5,254 houses in Colonia. I then used the true property tax of the average style and lot size in the Estate Section and came up with $10,100. I figured for every 5 homes in normal Colonia, that there was at least 1 in the estate section, and then using the calculations of 5,000 houses X $4,800 = $24,000,000 and the Estate’s 1,254 houses X $10,100 = $12,665,400 and adding them together, I came up with $36,645,400.
The next method, a more accurate one I believe, was using the Colonia Fire District 12 assessed property area of $355,194,000 in which 93.38% is residential property, totaling $331,680,400 in assessed value. (The assessment rate in Woodbridge Township is 41.44%, which means an average house in the district, with an indicated market value of $204,900, assesses for $84,900.) The tax rate for District 12 totals $6.14 per $100, meaning the average household pays $5,222.20 in taxes. (.80 county, 1.18 Muni, 3.79 school, .07 open space, .30 Fire)
The problem with this equation, as recommended by the Woodbridge Township Assessor, is that it only represents Fire District 12 and the 3,906 residential homes/units it encompasses. In fact, there are 6,254 residential units in Colonia. So now we must come up with the other remaining households in our town. To do so, we will simply take 6,254 and subtract 3,906, which equals 2,348. Of the remaining 2,348 residential units/homes, they are split up between Fire District #5 and #11. Iselin Fire District 11 has a tax rate at $0.25 and primarily covers the estate section and Avenel Fire District 5 covers the remaining Chain O’Hills section of Colonia, and has a tax rate of $0.19.
If we take a conservative split of 500 houses in the estate section and 1,848 in the remaining Chain O’Hills section, the remaining tax base can be estimated at $15,171,000. I calculated the 500 homes in the estate section with an average tax bill of $10,200, which I believe to be somewhat conservative, totaling $5,100,000. The 1,848 homes in the Chain O’Hills section would be calculated at the average of $5,450, being that the size of the lot’s and homes are assessed at a little more than the other homes in Fire District #12, totaling $10,071,000. I have found the average home in Colonia is assessed at $93,200, and the average tax rate per resident is $6.26 per $100.
Our total tax revenue per Fire District is:
Fire District 12: (67% of Colonia) $20,397,000
Fire District 11: (Estate Section) $5,100,000
Fire District 05: (Chain O’hills) $10,071,000
Total Residential Tax $35,568,000
The remaining 6.62% of our tax base is not residential; so we can assume they are commercially zoned businesses, and I can accurately estimate a total of 120 commercially zoned lots. I average these lots at $12,500 in taxes, equaling roughly $1,500,000.
Again, this is nothing more than an estimate and anyone else’s opinions or advice on how or why this will or will not work, I ask you to please PROVE ME WRONG. There is the question floating around now, that Woodbridge Township deserves more state aid, funds, and services for various needs, primarily their board of education, which I whole-heartedly agree with. Woodbridge Township currently receives $61,790,858 in State Aid to reduce the property tax burden on its residents. Colonia represents 18% of its total households, 18% of its total population, and roughly 20-21% of its school enrollment, yet it provides 24% of the revenues raised through property tax! My question to you, Mr. and Mrs. Colonia resident is, don’t you think Colonia deserves a little more township aid, township funds, and township services? Then again, why ask for help from someone else, when we can support ourselves and reach a better outcome in the meantime. With just 13% of the aid that Woodbridge receives, we can succeed. If we don’t unfairly support the rest of the sections in this township, then I say to Woodbridge, keep the remaining $54.3 million in aid. Their municipal and school budgets should drop to $65 million and $110.7 million, respectively. Their budget total of $175 million minus $54.5 million in aid, totals a $120.5 million levy to be collected through property tax or other revenue. This amount for the “new” Woodbridge Township consisting of 10,665 enrolled students, 79,600 residents, and roughly 28,500 households, should make their tax bill, dare I say, cheaper! I’m sorry, is this a win-win situation for the township at large and Colonia residents? This is not a democrat or republican issue, this is not a crazy resident with nothing better to do issue, this is an issue that involves some serious thought. We have a school budget that is inflated with questionable costs, a school system that is under used by residents, and a town that gets so little of what they truly deserve. To the Colonia resident reading this, don’t you want a safer, more efficiently run town with a better School District? If so, it’s time to wake up! You want to know the true cost of a better school district and safer neighborhood; the answer is an extra $248 per year. Over the course of 10 years, the average homeowner will pay an extra $2,500 for the privilege of living in a quiet, safe township with a highly rated school system and will probably see the value of their house go up, not including market price rise or inflation, at least $25,000, if not more. We are a beautiful town with a diverse population; we have small cape cods and magnificent estate homes, we have family’s just starting out and retiree’s looking for some relaxation. We have all this and nothing to show for it. Just imagine saying, “I live in Colonia” and to have it truly mean just that.
“It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it”
-- Aristotle
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