By Frank Mustac, Contributor
Mayor Kevin Kuchinski recently announced that $2 million in savings for township residents would be achieved through a “revised schedule for tax payments” from the Hopewell Valley Regional School District., The revision, discussed during the township committee meeting on Monday, was going to bring about the savings by “reducing debt and affordable housing costs” this year, according to the mayor., “After a thorough analysis, we determined that significant savings can be accomplished by shifting the timing of our tax payments to the school district,” he said. “For years, we have had to carry an extra $2 million dollars on our books because the July and August school payments came due before third-quarter tax payments were fully paid by residents to the township. This essentially penalized the taxpayer.”, The mayor thanked the school district for its help in shifting the timing of these payments. This program, he said, is part of a broader initiative to lower township borrowing., “We want to reduce the debt service cost,” the mayor said., Earlier in the evening, Chief Financial Officer Elaine Cruickshank-Borges reported that loan interests rates were on the rise., Kuchinski thanked the township’s CFO, as well as the school district’s Business Administrator Robert Colavita, Superintendent Thomas Smith and Board of Education President Lisa Wolff for their help in the savings initiative., Deputy Mayor Julie Blake said she was “thrilled to be part of this movement towards basically paying debt down and moving forward giving money back to the taxpayers in the future.”, “This is long-term financial planning for the township,” she said., Colavita, in a prepared statement, said the district was pleased that its “relationship with the township is very collaborative,” since that sense of working together allowed school officials to understand what could be done to make the savings a reality., As a result, Wolff said the district is interested in working with the township to devise more cost saving measures for taxpayers., “We are now looking at several additional initiatives that will reduce the school district’s operating costs,” she said. “It’s amazing what can be accomplished when you work with good partners.”
