CRANBURY: Court revenue decreases as police staff numbers decline

[Court]

CRANBURY: Court revenue decreases as police staff numbers decline

David Kilby, Managing Editor

CRANBURY — The township’s ticket revenue has decreased about $65,000 since it began sharing court services with Plainsboro four years ago, but the Township Committee believes the decrease is due to the decrease in officers in the township and not due to the cost of the shared service.

”The court agreement operates on a pure revenue transfer basis, which means that Plainsboro does not charge Cranbury any fees, and in return for providing court services, they retain any ticket revenue,” said Cranbury Township Committeeman James Taylor, liaison to the court.

He said, “The sole exception is related to DUI and DWI charges that result in a guilty verdict and fine. In that case, a percentage is returned to Cranbury by state statute for the purchase of body armor. Further, there is a misconception that tickets on the Turnpike return revenue as well to Plainsboro. That is not the case. It is important to note that any tickets issued by the State Police on the Turnpike have that revenue returned to the state. Municipalities cannot retain that revenue locally. This was confirmed last year during our review process.”

At the committee meeting Monday, Mr. Taylor went over the ticket revenue Cranbury has had since beginning shared services with Plainsboro in 2008. In 2008, the Police Department had 19 officers and ticket revenue was $228,000.

In 2009, the Police Department had 19 officers for part of the year, and ticket revenue dropped to $192,000. In 2010, the township decreased the number of officers to 18, and ticket revenue fell to $176,000. In 2011, Cranbury decreased the number of officers to 17, and ticket revenue fell to $163,000.

In February 2011, the committee approached the court to determine the operational costs of the court and where Cranbury’s ticket revenue stood in relation to those costs. The court provided a line item accounting that showed the total court cost was $726,853.13 of which Cranbury’s portion was $265,301.39.

”We have approached them again this year and are awaiting the final year-end numbers,” Mr. Taylor said. “When we look at the cost breakdown, the majority of that expense, $239,409, is related to salary and benefits. The employee positions are state mandated.

The rest of the article can be read at:
http://www.centraljersey.com/articles/2012/02/10/cranbury_press/news/doc4f342cd5ba4e3298720769.txt

[2008?]

2008? What did they do before that, I can if I remember right the Cranbury court closed in 1998 or 1999 and we have used Plainsboro's court since.

[Guess]

My guess is they went and looked at the most recent three year period and the press got it wrong about when it started. Usually in my business we look at the last three to five year periods to see trends anything beyond that isn't too useful as too many variables change.

The court did move in the late 90's. That was the time to make our own court if we were going to do it.