Thursday, March 21, 2013
Lawrence Township's $43 million spending plan for 2013 was formally introduced by township council on Tuesday. A public hearing on the budget will now take place on April 16.
- GOVERNMENT
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Thursday, March 21
Lawrence Township’s 2013 municipal budget, which calls for a 5-cent municipal tax rate increase, was formally introduced through a resolution approved by members of Lawrence Township Council at their meeting Tuesday evening (March 19). A public hearing on the $43,017,614 municipal spending plan has been scheduled to take place on April 16 before council members vote whether or not to formally adopt the budget. A copy of the budget, as introduced Tuesday, is available from the township’s website and the Patch media box to the right. Also available in the media box to the right is a document that was distributed at the meeting showing various changes in revenues and appropriations between the introduced budget and the recommended budget that…
Monday, March 11, 2013
Township Manager Richard Krawczun recently gave a presentation showing that of every tax dollar paid by Lawrence Township property owners, only 21 cents go to the township, while the school district gets 52 cents and the county gets the remaining 27 cents
In the five-year period from 2008 to 2012, Lawrence Township paid out a total of $7.8 million in cash refunds and credits to property owners who successfully appealed their tax assessments, despite the fact that the township’s share of those refunds and credits should really only have been $1.6 million. In a perfect world, the other $6.2 million would have been paid out by the Lawrence Township public school district and the Mercer County government. Instead, thanks to archaic state laws, the full burden of issuing those refunds and credits fell to the township. While the township did receive some reimbursement in the form of credit in successive years for the county’s share ($2.1 million), the township received none of the remaining $4.1 …
Monday, March 4, 2013
Lawrence Township Council will meet tomorrow, Tuesday, March 5, starting at 6:30 p.m. The meeting's agenda and the township manager's traditional pre-meeting memo are presented here for review.
- GOVERNMENT
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Monday, March 4
The next meeting of Lawrence Township Council will take place tomorrow, Tuesday, March 5, beginning at 6:30 p.m. at the municipal building at 2207 Lawrence Rd. (Route 206). The meeting agenda and Township Manager Richard Krawczun’s traditional pre-meeting memo are available from the township’s website and the Patch media box to the right. According to those documents, discussion of the recommended 2013 municipal budget will continue, and council will vote whether to adopt two ordinances concerning the sale of township-owned land and approve the awarding of a bid for the purchase of a new street sweeper for $266,760. Funding for the purchase of the street sweeper would come from the 2012 capital improvement program and Clean Community grant…
Monday, February 18, 2013
Lawrence Township Council will meet tomorrow, Tuesday, Feb. 19, starting at 6:30 p.m. The meeting's agenda and the township manager's traditional pre-meeting memo are presented here for review.
- GOVERNMENT
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Monday, February 18
The next meeting of Lawrence Township Council will take place tomorrow, Tuesday, Feb. 19, beginning at 6:30 p.m. at the municipal building at 2207 Lawrence Rd. (Route 206). The meeting agenda and Township Manager Richard Krawczun’s traditional pre-meeting memo are available from the township’s website and the Patch media box to the right. According to those documents, discussion of the recommended 2013 municipal budget will take place. Municipal Court Judge Kevin Nerwinski and Police Chief Daniel Posluszny are expected to make budget request presentations to council for their respective departments. Council will also hear an appeal from representatives of Mother’s Recovery Inc. concerning the denial of their application to provide towing …
Friday, February 8, 2013
The 5-cent increase to the municipal tax rate is needed to pay for cash refunds and to make up for the loss of revenue caused by successful tax appeals by Lawrence Township property owners, township council was told earlier this week.
Cash refunds that must be paid out and the substantial decrease to the township’s tax base that have resulted from successful appeals of their tax assessments by property owners will drain $1.25 million from Lawrence Township this year and, in turn, are responsible for the 5-cent increase to the municipal tax rate that Township Manager Richard Krawczun has included in his recommended 2013 municipal budget, Krawczun told members of Lawrence Township Council earlier this week. Following up the presentation concerning the 2013 recommended budget he made to council on Jan. 22, Krawczun used the manager’s report segment of Tuesday evening’s (Feb. 5) meeting to discuss the “revenue side” of the budget. Using a PowerPoint slideshow (a copy of …
Tuesday, February 5, 2013
Lawrence Township Council will meet today, Tuesday, Feb. 5, beginning at 6:30 p.m. The meeting's agenda and the township manager's traditional pre-meeting memo are presented here for review.
- POLICE & FIRE
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Tuesday, February 5
The next meeting of Lawrence Township Council will take place today, Tuesday, Feb. 5, beginning at 6:30 p.m. at the municipal building at 2207 Lawrence Rd. (Route 206). The meeting agenda and Township Manager Richard Krawczun’s traditional pre-meeting memo are available from the township’s website and the Patch media box to the right. According to those documents, discussion of the 2013 municipal budget will take place, with the respective heads of the township’s health, public works and recreation departments scheduled to make budget request presentations to council. Council is also expected to make an appointment to fill the vacancy on the Zoning Board of Adjustment that was created when zoning board chairman Stephen Brame was appointed …
Tuesday, January 22, 2013
Also during Tuesday's Lawrence Township Council meeting, Stephen Brame was selected to fill a vacant seat on council and the township manager presented his recommended 2013 budget, which includes a 5 cent increase to the municipal tax rate.
Privatization of Lawrence Township’s police/911 emergency dispatching operations has been approved by township council. As a result of a contract awarded by council during its meeting held earlier this evening (Tuesday, Jan. 22), Cranbury-based iXP Corporation will begin staffing the communications center at the township police station on April 1. The contract will run for two years, with the township having the option to award one three-year extension. Other significant news coming out of tonight’s meeting include the appointment of zoning board chairman Stephen Brame to fill the vacancy on township council that was created when Greg Puliti resigned on Dec. 31; the announcement by Township Manager Richard Krawczun that the recently-…
Thursday, December 6, 2012
Four ordinances intended to raise money for the township - including one that will create a new annual fee for residential property owners to have bulk trash items hauled away - were introduced during the Lawrence Township Council meeting on Tuesday.
An ordinance that would create a new mandatory annual fee for residential property owners to have bulk trash items hauled away – whether or not they use the service – and three other ordinances intended to generate more money for the township were introduced by members of the Lawrence Township Council at their meeting Tuesday evening (Dec. 4). The ordinances are the latest steps taken by the council and township administration in their ongoing struggle to reduce expenses and increase revenues in order to bring the 2013 municipal budget in compliance with the state’s 2 percent tax levy cap. The 2013 budget was most-recently pegged at being $502,000 over the tax cap, although Township Manager Richard Krawczun acknowledged after Tuesday’s …
Thursday, November 15, 2012
The president and vice president of the union that represents Lawrence Township's police dispatchers appeared at last week's Lawrence Township Council meeting to urge council not to trust such a vital service like dispatching to an unknown outside vendor.
Concerned about their jobs and those of their coworkers as Lawrence Township considers privatizing police dispatching, the leaders of the dispatchers’ union appeared at the Lawrence Township Council’s meeting last week (Nov. 8) to urge council members not to turn dispatching responsibilities over to a third-party vendor that is unfamiliar with the township. “We’ve been dealing with this for several months now and it’s really put a lot of stress and pressure on all of us wondering, daily, what’s going to happen to us come next year. Can you all just keep in mind every one of us just went through our second hurricane,” said Susan Handelman, union vice president, making reference to Hurricane Sandy two weeks ago and Hurricane Irene last year…
Wednesday, November 14, 2012
Lawrence Township Council last week heard three proposals to make the Recreation Office less reliant on tax dollars. One plan calls for an “across-the-board” 13-percent increase per year, for each of the next five years, in recreation participation fees.
With Lawrence Township still trying to cut expenses and increase revenues in order to bring its 2013 municipal budget in compliance with the state’s 2 percent cap on the tax levy, and with similar budgetary struggles likely in the years ahead, Recreation Superintendent Steve Groeger and his staff, together with the volunteers of the Recreation Advisory Committee, have been working hard to figure out ways to make the department more “self-sustaining” and less reliant on tax dollars. An “across-the-board” 13-percent increase – per year, for each of the next five years – in recreation participation fees was one of three proposals outlined by Groeger during last Thursday’s (Nov. 8) Lawrence Township Council meeting. Another option discussed …
Richard
11:21 am on Wednesday, March 13, 2013
In alot of states including California, property taxes are never raised. You pay the tax rate on the property market value of the house at the day you purchased the house. It is illegal to raise a property tax on idealist market price on a property. In California there is proposition 13, where you pay the same property tax for the whole time you own your home . Gee, somehow those counties, … more ›