To the Editor:
We’re at a crossroads again.
Chart New Course believes the significant change evident all around us makes this the right moment to ask the question: is our municipal structure right for us?
Our own effort started as a citizen petition to change our form of government. We collected hundreds of signatures and recruited volunteers. That effort spurred the Township Committee into action, and this November’s ballot will ask voters whether to establish a Charter Study Commission to examine our form of government.
Here’s why now is the right time to ask.
Residents feel this moment firsthand. New development is reshaping neighborhoods that hadn’t changed in decades. Beyond our borders, technology is remaking how people work, communicate, and expect their institutions to run, and nationally the divide between the two parties has never felt sharper. Hopewell Township isn’t immune to any of it.
What residents have, right now, is a real chance to be heard — a chance to decide how Hopewell Township responds to this moment. In the end, that question falls to you, the voter.
The numbers raise the question.
Hopewell Township has more than tripled in population since 1950, from 4,731 residents to 17,491 at the last census. Its Township Committee form of government traces back to a 1798 state law — 228 years old this year. That structure was built for a fraction of today’s population, long before anyone here was managing PILOT agreements, shared service contracts, or a multimillion-dollar budget.
Residents feel this without reading a budget. But the budget tells a story worth examining. It now sits at roughly $36.8 million, up from $25.2 million four years ago — a 46% increase — and up nearly 50% from $24.6 million in 2015. Insurance and employee benefits alone account for about $6.9 million of the 2026 budget — roughly a fifth of everything the township spends.
PILOT revenue — payments developers make in lieu of property taxes — has grown faster still. The township collected $1.4 million in PILOT payments in 2024 and $4.4 million in 2025, roughly tripling in a single year. For 2026, it anticipates $9.09 million, which would be close to a quarter of the entire budget. Nearly 40% of that projection — $3.6 million — rests on a single new agreement that has never made a payment. Residents have little visibility into how these deals are negotiated, and that gap matters more, not less, as PILOT revenue is projected to keep growing.
Whether a structure built in 1798 still fits a township of 17,500 is a fair question. It hasn’t had a full public airing in more than two decades. That’s the question a Charter Study Commission is built to answer — not us, and not by assumption.
This isn’t a question of political party — but every party belongs at the table.
Structure, accountability, and transparency aren’t Republican or Democratic concerns. They’re everyone’s. Chart New Course has involved Democrats, Republicans, and independents from the start, by design, because a question this fundamental should involve everyone.
That’s also why a Charter Study Commission works the way it does. Five residents, elected this November, study the question, hold hearings, and provide a recommendation. Only then — in a second referendum as soon as November 2027 — do Hopewell Township voters decide whether they agree. No predetermined outcome this year. No mandate. Just a process run all the way through.
The commission may well conclude that what we have works. That’s a legitimate outcome, and it would carry the weight of an honest, public examination — not a guess.
This November, we’re not asking you to change Hopewell Township. We’re asking you to authorize a careful, public look — without a foregone conclusion — at whether the government we have still fits the township we’ve become.
Support the Charter Commission question this fall. Learn more about government structures in New Jersey and join us at chartnewcourse.org.
Chart New Course is represented by certified charter commissioner candidates Chad Goerner, Stephen Klopfer, Michael Markulec, Tamera Matteo and Vanessa Sandom. We are a bipartisan group of former local officials, a veteran, management and financial professionals, an attorney, and a local business owner.
Sincerely,
Chad Goerner, Stephen Klopfer, Michael Markulec, Tamera Matteo, and Vanessa Sandom
