Consolidation 101: Merger aims to improve local economy

“The Borough has the downtown, so it’s got to be much more adept at responding to business needs, but that doesn’t make it more business-friendly,” Scott Sillars, vice chairman of the Transition Task Force, said.

The goal of consolidation, according to Sillars, is to streamline the performance of the government.

“We can do the same with less people, less taxes,” he said. Sillars is also running for councilman of the consolidated government.

From a financial standpoint, consolidation will lower taxes for inhabitants of both municipalities. At the moment, the two municipal tax rates are almost identical — the Borough’s 4.31 percent to the Township’s 4.35 percent. The rate will become uniform under consolidation, as municipal costs are cut from various departments.

According to a January 2011 report by the Joint Consolidation/Shared Services Study Commission, the Township has more than twice the number of properties the Borough does. However, the Borough is home to more commercial properties than the township.

The Princeton downtown area, which includes Nassau Street and stores surrounding the University, falls within Borough limits. Despite the business-heavy population of the Borough, these properties make up less than 13 percent of the total taxable properties in the two municipalities. Within the Borough, 27 percent of the taxable properties are classified as business properties, while the same classification makes up only 10 percent of Township properties.

Vice president of Palmer Square Management David Newton said he believes consolidation will initially have only minimal impact on businesses in Palmer Square, where his company owns the majority of the commercial property. Likewise, Raoul Momo, co-owner of Terra Momo Restaurant Group, also said that he does not anticipate any large-scale changes in day-to-day business functions. Terra Momo owns and operates Teresa Caffe, Mediterra and Witherspoon Bread Co. in the Borough, as well as Eno Terra in nearby Kingston.

“The town already works pretty closely in a lot of areas,” Momo said.

Currently, both the Borough and Township operate a joint regional planning board, with six appointed members from each municipality. Employees, however, are paid through the Township, and despite the joint effort, there are separate zoning ordinances for each town.

Under New Jersey state law, each municipality may continue implementing ordinances that predate consolidation. The consolidated government, however, will have the right to review each ordinance every five years and decide then whether a uniform ordinance is necessary. Such ordinances, Sillars explained, include regulations for matters such as the size and nature of businesses’ signs.

Despite the continuance of separate municipal ordinances, Momo pointed out one technicality that may change under consolidation. Because the state of New Jersey issues liquor licenses through each municipality, the licenses for Momo’s restaurants — originally issued by the Borough — could now be applied to the Township as well.

Gabrielle Carbone and Matt Errico, owners of The Bent Spoon, said that while they do not see consolidation affecting short-term business operations, they hoped the monetary savings might affect the long-term.

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“It will be exciting to see how the consolidation and the monetary savings might affect the costs associated with parking and the ability to get a liquor license,” they said.

The high parking fee is one aspect of Borough business that Momo said he hopes will improve under consolidation.

“In the past, the way to balance the Borough budget is by raising parking fees,” Momo explained. “I never thought that was good way to balance budget. It’s like punishing my customers, and it really is like a tax on the downtown.”

Above all, most businesses said they hoped consolidation would bring in a series of positive economic changes.

“My only hope is that it leads to very distinct savings in cost,” Newton said.

This is the third in a four-part series about the consolidation of the Borough and the Township.