Cherry Hill: No Tax Hike!

Congratulations to Cherry Hill Mayor Bernie Platt at the Township Council for holding the line on taxes this year.
Thanks to the efforts of the Mayor and Township officials, there will be no local real estate tax increase in Cherry Hill for the coming fiscal year.
If every government entity worked as hard as Mayor Platt and his colleagues we'd be in a lot better shape. Indeed, the state and many other government and quasi-government entities could learn a lot from this: cut waste, cut spending, cut the payroll.
Why don't they seem toi be getting the message? Beats me.
Here's the story from Adam Smeltz at the Courier-Post:
Local property owners will see no increase in municipal taxes under a preliminary levy approved Monday night.
Cherry Hill Township council members voted unanimously to adopt the preliminary levy for the 2010 fiscal year, which will begin in July. The planned levy assumes a $1 million budget cut, with most of that coming from layoffs.
At least for now, council's decision will hold the municipal tax rate at the fiscal 2009 level.
That means a typical home's township property tax would stay at about $1,180 annually.
Property owners, under the preliminary levy, will continue to pay about 84 cents per $100 in assessed property value.
To keep municipal taxes from rising, the township tentatively plans to cut about $1 million in spending from the current level of $62.6 million. About $800,000 of that reduction is expected to come via layoffs, township spokesman Dan Keashen said.
It was not immediately clear Monday how many of the township's 340 employees could lose their jobs.
Council President Steve Polansky would not comment on how many layoffs are likely.
"We were trying to get some concessions from the (unionized) township employees. It's looking less likely," Polansky said. "If (concessions) do not occur, that will increase the number of layoffs."
The township laid off five workers in 2008 and has eliminated about 20 other positions through attrition over the past several years. Keashen said the new round of layoffs will reach "across the board" in municipal departments, affecting unionized and nonunion workers.
He said the administration tried to work with collective-bargaining units to achieve concessions. Furloughs and wage freezes were on the table as possibilities, according to the township.
Keashen said the unions' response "was not productive."
Representatives of the Teamsters and the Cherry Hill Police Benevolent Association Local 176 -- two key units representing township workers -- could not be reached. . . .
Mayor Bernie Platt hosted town-hall-style meetings to generate cost-saving ideas. Keashen said the township has found savings by sharing services, consolidating departments and conserving energy -- in addition to trimming the labor force and taking other steps.
Further, Platt announced in December that about 130 nonunion township workers would go without raises this year, for a savings of about $200,000. In January, the township administration announced that six of the seven council members would accept 10 percent pay cuts at least through June 30.
Polansky said Monday that the council members' pay cuts will now extend at least through Dec. 31. Platt and business administrator Maris Kukainis have already agreed to accept 10 percent pay cuts through that date.
Council members are part-time employees and are paid $9,000 a year; the council president is paid $9,500 a year. Platt is paid $73,000 a year.
"We don't ask our employees to bear the pain without (our) also sharing it," Polansky said. He identified the overall cost-cutting moves as "very, very difficult decisions in an attempt to prevent any additional tax burden."
"Our aim was no (tax) increase, or even a (tax) cut," he said. "It's going to be pretty painful, ultimately, to get to no increase. . . . We recognize the difficult economic circumstances that the residents in the community face."