Plainsboro fire district wants to increase budget nearly 60%, says town

PLAINSBORO - Township residents will be asked on Saturday to approve a $1.58 million fire district tax increase to hire eight full-time firefighters over the next five years.

If approved, an average home valued at $451,100 would see an increase of about $151.94 a year or about $13 per month in the fire district's portion of property taxes.

The voting will be 2 to 9 p.m. Feb. 17 at the Plainsboro Fire Company, 407 Plainsboro Road.

"It's so important to us because it involves the safety of our town and the safety of our firefighters," said Bob Corriveau, chairman of the Board of Fire Commissioners. "The response time is much faster with people in-house. To have a full crew of four people 24 hours a day, seven days a week is just in the best interest of everybody in the township."

However, township officials are throwing cold water on what they call an "exceptionally high" budget increase, with future significant increases in future years.

"Elected officials found that the budget, which had been shared with them only ten days prior to the meeting, was vague and left many questions unanswered," the township says.

The township says the fire district wants to increase their budget 58% by approximately 33 times more than the state allows.

Mayor Peter Cantu, at a public hearing on the proposed budget, said "due to the District’s lack of transparency, the significant budget request to exceed and waive the mandatory 2% state cap, questionable and unsupported staffing needs and growth projections and the very significant financial impact to our residents, we have serious concerns about your budget request. We unanimously oppose the budget as proposed by the Fire District to our residents and as submitted to the state."

More: Middlesex County home sales for the week of Feb. 11, 2024

The Fire District is an independent taxing authority, separate from the township, that is overseen by an independent Board of Commissioners. The township has one fire department, which serves the 12-square-mile municipality.

The department is staffed by 13 paid firefighters, including Chief Matthew Collins, and about eight volunteers, who are active and respond to calls.

If approved, the district would immediately add four additional full-time paid firefighters.

"That would give us four career staff on each 24-hour crew," Corriveau said. "That is the NFPA (National Fire Prevention Association) guideline in order to staff an engine safely."

Over time, the district would add another four firefighters, Corriveau said.

Ultimately, the district would like to go to two crews, which would double the number of paid firefighters, Corriveau said.

The cost to hire a paid firefighter is about $100,000 a year, which includes salary, benefits and pensions.

"Right now, we have a full career staff on during the day, but at night we don't have a full staff on," he said. "They are hoping for more volunteers, but like many towns, they are having a hard time getting them. The number of volunteers has been greatly reduced over the years. We saw this happening, we just didn't realize it would happen as fast as it did."

Residents will be voting on the proposed $4,205,577 budget because it exceeds the state-mandated 2% cap. Last year's budget was $2,658,577.

If approved, the budget would raise the annual fire district tax rate from $.051 per $100 of assessed value to $.086.

"This is the first time we're actually going to a referendum to exceed that cap." Corriveau said. "In fact, the fire district has not asked to exceed the 2% cap in the last 20 years. There have been plenty of years that fire district taxes haven't gone up at all, not even the 2% that is allowed."

The number of calls received by the fire department has also increased over the years, Corriveau said.

In 2020, Plainsboro Fire Company responded to 558 calls for service, which increased to 907 calls in 2023, according to a letter on the Plainsboro Fire Company's website.

"We've already had more than 90 calls for service this year, which is higher than any other prior year at this point," Corriveau said. "Calls for service are trending up and we believe that will continue."

Email: sloyer@gannettnj.com

Susan Loyer covers Middlesex County and more for MyCentralJersey.com. To get unlimited access to her work, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: Plainsboro fire district wants to increase budget nearly 60%, says town