Stakes Are High In Under-The-Radar Bergen County Election

Here’s something Democrats and Republicans agree on – the dominant issue in the upcoming Bergen County elections will be property taxes.

But’s that’s about all they agree on.

The Republicans say the Democrats repeatedly increased taxes when they controlled the county freeholder board. Moreover, the GOP boasts that it managed to trim taxes when it regained a majority in 2011.

The Democrats, however, insist that they lowered taxes during their years of control of county government. They also say the Republican majority hurt vital county services in this year’s budget cuts, while it kept in place excessive spending on overtime and administrative expenses.

“There’s really only one issue and that’s taxes and the Democrats have increased taxes by more than 100 percent,’’ said Bob Yudin, the Republican county chairman.

“That’s what they’re claiming, but we have numbers that can refute that,’’ countered Lou Stellato, the Democratic chairman.

Political control of the Bergen County freeholder board flopped back and forth like a seesaw a decade ago. The GOP had the majority in 2000, then Democrats in 2001, the Republicans again in 2002 and finally the Democrats took control in 2003 and kept it for eight years, holding all seven seats for a period of time.

But the GOP won back two seats in November 2009 and recaptured the majority by winning three seats last year. Now the Republicans are looking to sweep the Democrats off the freeholder board in a race that pits two GOP challengers, Joel Brizzi and Anthony Rottino, against nine-year Democratic incumbent David Ganz and his running mate, Assemblywoman Joan Voss, who is filling the spot on the Democratic ticket vacated when Bernadette McPherson decided not to seek re-election.

Two other countywide elections are being held. The County Clerk’s race features a contest between two candidates who previously served as freeholders – Democrat John Hogan and Republican Elizabeth Randall, who was appointed to the clerk’s job on an interim basis in January when left the position to become County Executive.

For Surrogate, Michael Dressler, a Democrat who has held the job for 15 years, faces a challenge from Republican Andrew Cimiluca.

With odd-sounding jobs like freeholder, surrogate and clerk involved, voters sometimes have a hard time getting excited about county government elections. But the stakes are high. Among other things, county government pays for a sprawling parks system, an extensive network of roads, , vocational schools, a 110-bed nursing home, transportation for the elderly and people with disabilities, the jail, the county police, the sheriff’s department and the prosecutor’s office.

Under this year’s budget, Bergen County government collected $351.9 million in property taxes. That’s more taxes than what Hackensack, Teaneck, Fair Lawn, Fort Lee, Paramus, Englewood and Ridgewood collected for their own municipal services combined. But because the county tax burden gets spread out among property owners in every Bergen municipality, the county portion usually turns out to be the smallest component of individuals’ tax bills.

The 2011 Bergen County tax levy is about $800,000 less than what it was last year, a decrease of less than one-quarter of one percent. But Republicans say the significance of that reduction far exceeds its actual size

“It’s the first decrease in eight years,’’ said Randall, whose extensive government career included stints as a deputy Attorney General, state Commissioner of Banking and Insurance, vice president of the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority and commissioner on the Board of Public Utilities. “It’s not a huge tax cut, but it’s a start.’’

In 2003, when the Democrats took over, the Bergen County tax levy – which is the total amount of taxes collected – was $224.7 million. By 2010, the last year of Democratic control, the levy reached $352.7 million, records show.  That’s about a 57-percent increase over eight years.

But the Democrats prefer measuring county taxes by using a different set of numbers – the equalized county tax rate. That’s the tax rate property owners would pay for county services if all Bergen County properties were assessed at market value. In 2003, the equalized county rate was 21 cents per $100 of value, according to Ganz. In 2010, that rate was 19 cents per $100, he said.

“We brought it down year after year during the nine years I’ve been on the board with the exception of one year,’’ said Ganz, a former Fair Lawn mayor who had been freeholder finance chairman for eight years when the Democrats held control.

A major reason why the county tax rate went down even as the total county tax collections increased was the real estate boom during the last decade significantly raised the total amount of taxable property in Bergen County.

Besides their disputes over their track records on taxes, the two tickets also are at odds over this year’s budget.

The Republicans tout the budget as a turning point, a sign that their party is bringing new level of fiscal accountability to county government. But Ganz insisted that the budget should have been cut further. He provided a list of more than $7 million in nitty-gritty, line item cuts, including $4 million from overtime spending and $21,000 from Donovan’s advertising budget.

Ganz said he would have rather seen those reductions made instead of the spending cuts that targeted Bergen Commuity College and the Board of Social Services.

“I think you have to assess what it is that the people are looking for,’’ Ganz said. “The problem is, that when you make cuts, you shouldn’t cut the core services that the people really need. That’s problematic.’

As an example, Ganz said the Republicans eliminated Bergen County’s Meals on Wheels program. But when Patch.com sought to verify that, it turned out the Meals on Wheels program remains in operation. When asked about that in a follow-up interview, Ganz acknowledged that his comments about the program had been erroneous. The funding for the meals program actually is scheduled to expire at the end of this year, he said, unless new funding is provided.

Voss, Ganz’ running mate, said she was particularly troubled by a $2.5 million cut from the community college budget.

“This is without question the best community college in the state and it’s so critical that we keep tuition the way it is so kids can continue to afford it,’’ said Voss, a Fort Lee teacher for 41 years. Voss has been an Assemblywoman since 2004, but decided to run for freeholder this year after Fort Lee was shifted into a different legislative district where there already were two incumbent Democrats.

The Republican candidates defended the county college cuts made by the GOP freeholder majority. “It comes down to how the money is being spent,’’ said Brizzi, an East Rutherford councilman who runs a business that sells water filters for homes and businesses. Brizzi said he had some questions about the new student center built on one of the campuses. “I’m a big believer that money doesn’t buy education,’’ said Brizzi.

Rottino, Brizzi’s running mate, said the cost overruns at Overpeck Park illustrated what he called the Democrats’ record of fiscal mismanagement. “It’s an insult for him to talk about Meals on Wheels when he has to answer for $140 million for that park,’’ said Rottino, a Franklin Lakes resident who owns his own construction company. “He was there for all that.’’

In addition to the Republicans and Democrats, there’s an independent candidate on the freeholder ballot, Edward Brunner, a 51-year-old Bergen County Sheriff’s Officer. Brunner, a Waldwick resident, said neither party has done a good job running county government.

"They don’t act on anything," said Brunner, a sheriff’s office for 24 years. "All they do is form commissions to study their studies."

Brunner acknowledges his is a long-shot candidacy. He has not raised any money, bought any campaign signs or mailed any fliers.

“It’s all word of mouth,’’ he said.

Campaign finance documents released this week indicate the Democrats have a substantial edge in fund-raising so far. Reports filed with the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission (ELEC) show Ganz and Voss’ joint campaign account raised $209,852, while Ganz also had $11,497 in his own account.

That about four times more money than the Republicans. Brizzi had $35,388, Rottino $17,628 and their joint account $2,500.

Meanwhile, Randall’s report shows she has raised $55,507, while Cimiluca’s account showed $19,570 in contributions. The state ELEC website did not have campaign contribution reports for Hogan and Dressler.

“It’s an off, off, off year election,’’ said Stellato, the Democratic chairman. “There’s no president on the ballot, there’s no governor on the ballot, there’s no Congressman or US Senator on the ballot. It’s going to be very difficult to get voters out to vote.’’

It may be particularly difficult to get voters excited about the elections for two jobs that are mainly administrative positions. The clerk oversees all land transactions and keeps various others records, including election returns. The surrogate, meanwhile, handles the probate of wills, adoptions, and appointments of estate administrators and guardians.

Dressler counts among his accomplishments during his 15 years as surrogate the computerization of the office and getting a high return on the investments his office make with money being held on behalf of minors.

Cimiluca, who has worked as municipal prosecutor for several towns, argued that Dressler’s website needed to be more up-to-date and called his opponent “the last vestige of the Ferriero political machine,’’ referring to former Democratic chairman who was convicted of corruption charges in 2009 that were dismissed a year later.

“That’s pretty funny because I was elected before Joe Ferriero was chairman,’’ said Dressler, a former Creskill mayor.

In the clerk’s race, Hogan is criticizing Randall for “going from one high paid government job to another” and says she has too many employees and doesn’t seek competitive prices when hiring contractors to print sample ballots and absentee ballots.

Randall, however, pointed out that state law stipulates that clerk need not go for public bidding on the printing jobs because the nature of the work is so important and time-sensitive that mistakes on the ballots could affect the election process.

If the Republicans were to sweep the November contests, they would hold all 11 countywide elected positions. The Democrats have cited that possibility as one of the reasons people should vote for them.

“I’m one who believes in checks and balances and the two-party system,’’ said Voss. “We need the loyal opposition.’’

Brizzi laughed off that argument. “I didn’t hear them saying that when they had control of the board for eight years,’’ he said.