The Bordentown City Board of Commissioners held its first monthly meeting of the year.
Heather Cheesman was sworn in to another term as commissioner by State Sen. Troy Singleton at the meeting on Jan. 13.
Cheesman had won a seat through an uncontested special election in November. She was serving as interim commissioner and director of public safety and affairs after filling a vacancy in March 2024. She previously served on the board from 2009 to 2013 and had served as deputy mayor and director of revenue and finance.
During commissioner reports, Mayor Jennifer Sciortino touched upon the “Open Space, Recreation, and Historic Preservation Program.”
Voters came out to the polls and approved the measure in the November election.
“It requires a lot of planning for implementation and we want to have that ready this year,” Sciortino said, adding there will be a number of stakeholder and public meetings for public input.
With the approval, the governing body is committed to maintaining an Open Space Tax at an annual rate of between $0.01 to $0.04 (one cent to four cents).
Each cent of the local tax levy generates roughly $35,000 dollars in revenue for the city. If the rate was set at the maximum of four cents — for example — it would generate roughly $140,000 in revenue for the year that would be exclusively dedicated for open space, recreation, or historic preservation needs, officials had explained.
“We’ve noted in the past, it’s not a huge amount of money, but even if we go to a max four cents, it would at least help us chip away at priorities that otherwise we could not afford,” the mayor said.
The city could also leverage the revenue generated from the Open Space Tax to go after much larger state or federal grants for these purposes, which often require a funding match from municipalities.
For context, in 2024 the city’s annual property tax levy increased by just over four cents. For the average homeowner, with a home assessed at roughly $205,000, that translated into an annual increase of roughly $107 on their local property tax bill.Â
The board of commissioners also approved the first reading of an ordinance to move the municipal elections to the general election in November. A second reading and public hearing is set for Feb. 10.
