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WyBlog, the best thing about New Jersey since the invention of the 24 hour diner.
Chris Wysocki
Caldwell, NJ
The nine most terrifying words in the English language are "I'm from the government and I'm here to help." - Ronald Reagan
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Hey! I've moved to He's Pretty Fly For A Jersey Guy.
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Thursday, 22 April 2010
Yowza! Revised Caldwell municipal budget has NO tax increase
Last month the Caldwell Township Council introduced a budget for next year which called for a 2% tax increase. At that time I strongly condemned their apparent inability to control spending and live within their means.
They got the message! The revised budget introduced last night calls for NO tax increase. None. Nada. Zilch.
In a sudden twist of events, council adjourned into executive session facing a $184,927 budget increase and 2.66 percent tax hike and emerged an hour later without a deficit or tax increase — or a reason to consider furloughs.
"The discussion is over," said Councilman Joseph Norton, chairman of the budget committee. "Items three, four and five on our agenda of furloughs for the police department, non-union employees and the DPW employees will no longer need to take place."
Joe Norton is The Man!
The revised spending plan calls for a significant reduction in police overtime. It hasn't been cut to zero (yet), but any decrease in this area is welcome news. The next step is to seriously consider merging our police department with West Caldwell (with whom we already share many services). Between us there should be enough officers on patrol so that both towns can eliminate all police overtime.
The revised budget also introduces a new and somewhat controversial source of revenue.
In what is being called the Community User Resource Enhancement (CURE) tariff, the borough plans to implement a new tax that could allow municipalities that house colleges to charge a yearly fee of $100 to each full-time student and $50 to each part-time student for the use of services like the police and fire departments.
With an enrollment of approximately 2,300, half of whom attend part-time, Caldwell College students could generate a revenue of approximately $170,000.
As you know I'm not a fan of raising taxes, or of imposing new ones on the public. But Caldwell College has been getting a free ride since the beginning of time. As an educational and religious institution they are exempt from most property taxes yet they rely on the town for many services. Hence a modest user fee to cover the cost of those services seems eminently reasonable.
Besides it will teach the idealistic young women who attend Caldwell College a valuable life lesson. They are by and large ultra-liberal "social justice" types, espousing every ACORN, A.N.S.W.E.R., MoveOn.org, and left-wing talking point as the Gospel Truth. To them "free stuff" from the government is practically a birthright. A dose of cold hard reality in the form of having to put their money where their bleeding hearts are is the kind of wake-up call these budding socialists need.
Remember kids, in the immortal words of Robert Heinlein, there ain't no such
thing as a free lunch.
Posted at 09:50 by Chris Wysocki
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