By STEVE PRISAMENT
Staff Writer

GALLOWAY TOWNSHIP – A 2008 budget that includes scaled back service at the township-run post office was approved by Township Council in a 4-3 vote and reintroduced at a meeting Tuesday, May 27.

The total budget of $23,640,133 is down $66,113 from the $23,706,246 budget introduced on March 25.

The tax rate of $.677 per $100 of assessed value is 11.3 percent higher than the 2007 rate of $.608 per $100 of assessed value.

Figures approved in March would have raised the municipal tax rate by 7 cents for every $100 of property valuation. Tuesday’s reduction has lowered that figure to 6.9 cents per $100 of valuation.

A home assessed at $200,000 would pay $138 more in taxes for local services this year than a year ago – $2 less than in the budget that was introduced initially in March.

The reduction, according to Township Manager Jill Gougher, is mainly due to planned cutbacks at the post office.

Running the post office – a contract postal unit located in front of the Municipal Complex on Jimmie Leeds Road – has cost taxpayers about $70,000 a year, she said. It has been staffed with two full-time and two part-time employees.

“We’re going to cut back to one full-time person and fill in with part-time people,” Gougher said.  “We’re looking at reduced hours on Saturdays and maybe during the week.”

Gougher said the post office will also look into the possibility of providing other services to raise money.

She said the cost to the township would be reduced to between $10,000 and $15,000.

Council appeared prepared to get out of the postal business, but citizens’ complaints and the cost reduction won over the four votes needed to keep it alive.

The township’s percentage of revenue will increase from 8.5 to 10 percent, Gougher said, but the municipality will be committed to running the facility for another full year in a new agreement with the United States Postal Service.

Those voting to approve the budget with the post office included were Mayor Tom Bassford, Deputy Mayor Bill Ackerman and Councilmen Al DeSimone and Keith Hartman, all Republicans.

Voting against the budget were Democrats Meg Worthington and Jim Gorman and Republican Jim Cox.
Cox said it was a very close issue for him.

“If it was going to cost $70,000 to keep the post office, I would have definitely said no,” he said. “Getting it down to maybe $10,000 to provide a service that a number of citizens value – I almost changed my vote.”

Worthington said she thought they “could have done better” at reducing costs.

“There are things we could have done,” she said. “I don’t think we cut as much as we should have.”

Gorman, too, said the budget issue was more than just whether to keep the post office.

“I’d like to see a couple of cents more off the budget,” he said.

Bassford said he’d like to see a smaller budget as well.

“But with automatic increases and with cuts in revenue, I think we’ve done a good job at 6.9 cents,” he said. “It could have been in double digits. The council worked hard. The members of the citizens’ budget committee worked hard. And the departments worked hard. They saw our problems. Some of them even requested less.”

The total budget is up 6 percent from last year’s $22,284,076.

The amount to be raised by taxation in 2008 is $13,009,714, up from $11,549,314 in 2007.

The increase is $1,496,512 – 12.6 percent.