WLB mulls charging college students for services

WEST LONG BRANCH — The Borough Council is considering a proposal that would charge Monmouth University students as much as $100 in fees to offset the cost of providing emergency services.

The measure, which was initially endorsed by the New Jersey State League of Municipalities (NJSLM) in November, was brought up by Mayor Janet Tucci at the council’s Jan. 20 meeting. The proposal would establish a fee structure for students in an effort to recoup costs the municipality expends on emergency services for the university.

“It was felt that [the students] increase the fire and first aid [calls], and [the NJSLM] wanted a stipend attached to students that either were day students or off-campus students,” Tucci explained during the Jan. 20 meeting.

Tucci said she wanted the council to look over the proposed measure before it could be considered an option for the borough, and urged the council to think about it.

“I definitely think it’s something that you should at least consider, and then in the future or at the next meeting or so, you can decide what you want to do with it,” she said.

Under the proposal, West Long Branch would charge full-time students attending classes at Monmouth University $100 a year, while part-time students would be charged $50. According toMichael Cerra,NJSLMsenior legislative analyst, Montclair Township Mayor Jerry Fried introduced the measure at the NJSLM’s annual conference in November in response to the added burden that students at Montclair State University place on that municipality’s emergency services.

The league endorsed the measure as a resolution and is seeking legislative support for it at the state level.

“The purpose of it is just a recognition that university students utilize multiple services and it creates a demand on those services, which obviously right now are paid for by the municipal property taxpayers,” Cerra explained.

“When there is a crisis or an emergency, nobody asks these types of questions; you send who has to be sent to address it. You send your EMTs, you send your fire department, you send your police department, and these … services are vital, but at the end of the day in order to continue an adequate level of service, particularly for public health and safety, funding is needed,” he added. “So that is really what the genesis of this is.”

According to Cerra, the measure is not meant to be a burden on students and will not pay for the full cost of the emergency services used by universities and colleges, but it will assist in covering some of the expenses.

The measure calls for students living on or near their college campus to pay the emergency services fee, while a structure for commuter students is still being discussed.

“The resolution is specific in the amount, because we thought it was only fair to keep it nominal, but … we didn’t really want to get bogged down in that kind of detail,” Cerra said. Although the measure takes into account the financial burden students can put on a municipality’s emergency services, Cerra said it does not address situations where colleges or universities, like Monmouth, provide their own emergency services coverage or have a cost-sharing agreement with their host town.

According to Monmouth University Director of Public Affairs Petra Ludwig-Shaw, the university has several agreements in place with West Long Branch that help to offset any emergency services costs students may generate while attending the school.

“However, Monmouth University has its own police department and waste disposal, while substantially contributing to the West Long Branch fire and first aid squads monetarily, as well as with volunteers [students participate as members of both squads, and Monmouth University allows employees to respond to local first aid calls and fires as a community service without loss of income],” Ludwig-Shaw explained last week.

“Additionally, the university does not add to the expense of the local public schools, of which the majority of the municipal property taxes collected go toward,” she added.

According to Ludwig-Shaw, a tax on students would negatively impact West Long Branch, Ocean Township and Long Branch small business owners who rely on the university’s economic influence.

“The university employs over 1,000 people, 80 of them from West Long Branch, and 949 students, generally in part-time positions,” Ludwig-Shaw explained. “The university also employs local contractors, while students and employees frequent print shops, pizza and sub shops, drugstores, gas stations and food stores, etc. The student tax proposal would place a burden on an essential component of the West Long Branch and regional economy.”

Ludwig-Shaw also said the university makes property tax payments, as well as voluntary payments to West Long Branch and an annual $25,000 payment toward the purchase of a new fire truck, splitting the cost with the borough over a 10-year period, the second time the borough and university have had such an agreement.

“In 2009 Monmouth University donated $75,000 to the borough to split the cost of an ambulance for the first aid squad and donated $11,000 for the purchase of a powered stretcher for the first aid squad. This is the second time the university has made a donation for a stretcher.” Ludwig-Shaw said.

“Also, the university has donated to the West Long Branch Centennial, West Long Branch Foundation for Education for the purchase of a weather station, and Shore Regional [High School]’s theater production organization,” she said.

Ludwig-Shaw also pointed to donations that university students have made for the construction of Alyssa’s Angels Park in West Long Branch, which was designed to accommodate children with special needs.

“Students also make payments to the first aid squad when the squad has to respond to a call involving alcohol, $150 per call,” Ludwig Shaw added.