Bastone: Shutdown Wouldn't Stop Montville in the Short Term

While federal agencies prepare for the possibility of a government shutdown Saturday morning due to budget negotiations, Township Administrator Frank Bastone said that a federal shutdown wouldn’t be a problem for Montville in the short term.

“I don’t anticipate, in the short run, any impact on the township,” he said. “We will continue to operate.”

Bastone said that a long-term shutdown could potentially impact the township, as Montville does utilize services of federal agencies like FEMA and the FBI, but because of the township’s financial self-reliance, a shutdown would not halt township operation.

“Years ago, there would have been more of an impact because we used to get federal revenue sharing money,” he said. “Now, we pretty much operate on local taxes and state energy money, so our operations are not significantly depended on federal issues.”

As of Friday morning, the federal budget is still being worked on. President Obama said on Thursday night that “the staff is going to be working tonight around the clock on order to see if we can finally close a deal,” but that he wasn’t able to express “wild optimism.”

Obama said he hoped to announce a budget sometime “relatively early” on Friday.

“My hope is that I’ll be able to announce … that a shutdown has been averted,” he said.

, Bastone maintains that Montville would maintain, at least for a little while.

“We’d have to revisit it long term, but short term, there wouldn’t be much impact,” he said.