Once Bitten, Twice Shy?

By Mayor Mike Halfacre, Fair Haven

The State of New Jersey has a fiscal year 2009 budget.

Governor Corzine is proud of this budget:

“They did take tough municipal aid hits, I understand that, just as the state government has taken a tough hit," Corzine said at the Statehouse. "But I will repeat what I have said over time. We have put $570 million into education spending, and it's $160 million in cuts in municipal aid. Since property taxes are 55 percent on average driven by school costs, people have a hard time arguing the overall impact will be as tough as is being suggested.

“Tough” is a relative term.

If all the promised aid come through, our School District will have a net increase of less than $30,000.00. This will require Extraordinary Aid, which is not a sure thing.

Currently, our municipal aid is down by $138,018.00, although that amount is not yet confirmed. This would mean a net loss of over $100,000.00, or about a penny on our tax rate, between the school and the Borough. This does not account for rising pension costs, contractual increases, and insurance costs, all of which the State of New Jersey could assist in reigning in, but does not.

Maybe the impact of a penny loss on the tax rate, or roughly $55.00 on an average Fair Haven home, is not “tough”. But the impact is certainly tougher than on other towns in New Jersey.

Apparently, it won’t be tough at all on the towns that are also Abbott Districts, who are getting additional increases over the already bloated state aid they receive, with no accountability for their waste.

It won’t be tough on School Superintendents in Abbott Districts, who can retire with multi-million dollar buy-outs. From our tax money.

It won’t be tough on the bus drivers in Abbott Districts that get cell phones that cost in excess of $300.00 per month. Each.

It won’t be tough on the bus drivers in Abbott Districts that get paid overtime to charge those cell phones.

It won’t be tough on the dead people that get property tax rebate checks, or get paychecks from Abbott Districts that are run by the State.

It won’t be that tough on the large cities, whose percentage cuts in Municipal aid are less than a quarter the cut incurred by Fair Haven.

It won’t be tough on those Abbott Districts that got an additional $3.9 billion in borrowed money for new school construction, despite your repeatedly professed desire that all new borrowing should go before the voters. All borrowing except for this borrowing, he meant.

Last year, Republicans predicted that the property tax rebates were unsustainable. This has come true, and they are slashed in this budget. I predict that next year, money will magically appear to again expand the budget beyond what we can afford, to pave the way for Corzine’s attempt at reelection.

Let’s hope that the voters don’t fall for it.