Candidate's Blog: Transcript Eight

[Disclosure: This blog is written from my perspective as both a candidate for a seat on Gloucester Township Council and as a concerned citizen of Gloucester Township with questions and concerns about reckless spending and business as usual in Gloucester Township.]

We seem to get a lot of promises in this town and are told quite often by our mayor how rosy things are here. At a March 4th, 2013, council meeting we were treated to this boast by Mr. Mayer: “I'm very proud to say that for four years in a row, we are introducing a budget that holds the line on taxes. We've worked hard over these last three-and-a-half years to straighten out our township's finances…” (You can see the story here.)

When the final 2013 township budget was passed in council, it was trumpeted loudly that it was done without a tax increase. Did you happen to get your new tax bill on Tuesday or Wednesday? The Municipal Tax Rate rose from 82.5-cents per $100 assessed value to 83.3-cents. That’s $16 dollars more on a $200,000 dollar home using the benchmark that Mr. Mayer himself uses. Not only that but your GT School tax rates, Regional School tax rates, and all the Fire District tax rates went up as well. (In addition, the County tax rate also increased.)

So, all in all, given a home rated at $200,000, taxes increased by $108.00 dollars. The increase was actually moderated by a decrease in the County Open Space tax rate and no increase in the County Library and Municipal Open Space tax rates.

Here’s another problem…is your house really worth what the township in its 2009 tax re-evaluation scheme lists as your home’s value? Given what I’ve seen, I believe that is highly doubtful.

Add to all this, somewhere north of $100 million dollars of township debt and you might be able to figure out where things are going.

Okay, to save you all the trouble…”Only $108 dollars (or $16 dollars if you prefer to quote only the Municipal tax increase)? That’s a joke; you probably spend multiples of that for fast food. You should be thanking Dave Mayer for doing such a great job and giving us the Hit Doctor (a failed election-year promise), and the Field of Dreams (??? – no dirt has been moved yet), and Off-Track-Betting, and the newly planned Outlet Mall over by the bridge, roads, and circles that lead to nowhere (is this another election-year promise?), and a newly constructed wall at the Gloucester Township Community Park featuring a statue and dedication plaque to Dave Mayer…” and on, and on, and on. Additionally, I have seen documentation that proves the municipal tax rate has gone up the last three years. If you still have your old tax bills, pull them out and compare them.

So, Mr. Mayer assured us that the 2013 budget was not going to include a tax increase but that promise can now takes its place amongst the annals of Dave Mayer’s “failed successes” (there’s an oxymoron for you, kind of like “military intelligence”). Here’s the thing, when someone tells me that something is not going to cost me any more than before I expect that to be a zero dollar increase not the $119.88 (or the $18 municipal increase) that my taxes actually increased.

What else isn’t Mr. Mayer and council telling us? We just received news of a large Outlet Mall to be built in Gloucester Township but the news is a little too close to election time for comfort. If you remember back to the last mayoral/council election you might remember that Mr. Mayer was promising us that the Hit Doctor was coming to the Nike Base and that we would experience a Little League World Series there (check the accompanying picture that shows the web site they already had prepared). Well, the Nike Base is still overgrown and the Hit Doctor built his complex in Voorhees.

Please, Mr. Mayer, stick to the facts and lay off the political shenanigans. We want transparency in GT government, just like you promised, Mr. Mayer, but never delivered.

Don’t forget to vote Gloucester Township First (Brown, DiBartolo, Kline and Pauli) and I hope to see you all in November.