The Lawrence Township Council adopted the proposed $60.4 million municipal budget for 2025, following a public hearing on the spending plan at its April 1 meeting.
The municipal property tax rate is unchanged from 2024, at 65 cents per $100 of assessed value. The owner of a home assessed for property tax purposes at the township average of $287,570 will pay $1,874.96 in municipal property taxes. The assessed value is not the same as the market value, or for-sale price.
The municipal property tax is one component of a property owner’s tax bill. The total tax bill includes the Lawrence Township Public Schools and Mercer County property taxes, in addition to the municipal property taxes.
Meanwhile, the $60.4 million budget is $325,032 less than the 2024 municipal budget of $60.7 million.
The proposed budget includes hiring three additional firefighters, three additional police officers and 11 in-house 9-1-1 dispatchers. They will replace IXP Corp., which had provided emergency dispatch services – but at no additional cost in 2024.
The main source of revenue to support the budget is property taxes. The amount to be raised by taxes is $31 million, which is an increase of $214,461 over the 2024 municipal property tax levy.
The increase in the amount to be raised by taxes is offset by the growth in the value of taxable properties in the township, Municipal Manager Kevin Nerwinski said.
Lawrence Township’s tax base is made up of all taxable properties – residential, commercial and industrial. Its value is $7.4 billion for 2025, or $32.9 million more than the total tax base in 2024.
The township also relies on miscellaneous revenue, receipts from delinquent property taxes, state aid and cash surplus funds as sources of revenue, in addition to property taxes.
Miscellaneous revenue includes fees and permits, liquor licenses, the hotel and motel tax and the 2% local retail tax on cannabis dispensaries. The local sales tax on cannabis dispensaries generated $600,000 in revenue.
The budget also anticipates using $9.3 million in surplus funds as a source of revenue. The township had $22 million on hand in surplus funds on Dec. 31, 2024.
Mayor Patricia Hendricks Farmer said she was pleased with the budget and said the township is well-positional financially. She praised Nerwinski, the municipal manager, who prepared the budget.
“This is a very good budget,” Farmer said. She characterized it as a very well thought-out and conservative spending plan.
Township Councilman Jim Kownacki thanked the municipal department heads for keeping their budgets tight.
“This is one of the better budgets and I am really proud to be supporting it,” said Kownacki, who has served on the Township Council for 16 years.
During the public hearing on the budget, township resident Catie MacDuff said she was aware that the budget was not something that was thrown together at the last minute. It takes months of planning and dedication to prepare a budget.
“(But) I want to underscore that there are questions and confusion,” said MacDuff, who briefly served on the Township Council in 2023. “People don’t know what questions to ask (about the budget) or how to ask them, or they are too timid to ask them.”
MacDuff suggested that it would be helpful for the public if the budget was reviewed on a line-by-line basis – something that she and Township Councilman John Ryan had suggested for 2024. Ryan suggested reviewing it line by line again this year.
“There is a lot of frustration,” she said. “We want to be part of the conversation and have it explained so we know where our tax dollars are going.”
Nerwinski, the municipal manager, said the budget had been posted online on the township website since Feb. 4. People can contact township officials and ask questions, he said.
Township Councilman Christopher Bobbitt said it might be possible to have an “open house” and to walk the public through the budget, line by line. There could be a discussion about priorities and how the budget is prepared, he said.
Farmer agreed that it might be possible to review the budget line by line, but it would be at least a two-hour process. The Township Council members will consider and discuss it to see if it is possible to do so.
