Princeton residents will get a break on the township portion of their tax bills, after the council approved its budget at its meeting Monday night.

The final budget reduced the municipal tax rate by 2 cents, to 41 cents on each $100 of assessed value of property. The $61 million budget is $3 million less than the previous year’s budget, which takes into account both the former borough and township budgets.

MayorLiz Lempert said the savings came as a result of the savings from this year’s consolidation helped reduce the tax burden on residents.

“This year we are literally doing more with less,” she said. “I don’t know the last time the municipal tax rate was actually lowered.”

Police Capt. Nicholas Sutter, who is running the department at least until the October retirement of Chief David Dudeck, gave a presentation on the agreement between Princeton police and Princeton University police.

He said the agreement, which was based on the two authorities working more closely together, should clarify some controversies from the past, such as reporting of serious crimes like sexual assaults. He said prior discrepancies in the reporting of those crimes came from differences in the statutes that governed the two departments, the Unified Crime Reporting system for the police departments and the Clery Act for the university itself.

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