From the Feb. 6 edition of the Register-News.
By:
We desperately
need ratables
To the editor:
I was appalled to read that DEP Commissioner Campbell unveiled a map illustrating where the state wants new development to take place.
Most of Mansfield Township was colored red on the map, meaning the state wants to discourage development there.
We desperately need ratables in Mansfield Township to offset the burden generated on the taxpayers of Mansfield Township by an increasing population and the services and, most importantly, the schools, to support it.
We need ratables to keep us out of the red.
I have heard rumors that a large age-restricted development is being proposed for a property south of the Mansfield Township Municipal Complex which will be located off Route 206.
Why should Mansfield Township be denied this most important ratable, specifically due to the fact that there will be no impact on the school enrollment and will help pay the inequitable tax structure for Mansfield Township at the Northern Burlington County Regional School District?
The taxpayers of Mansfield Township are expected to finance the reconstruction of Mansfield Road East for approximately $3 million.
Some of the traffic generated on Mansfield Road East can be attributed to vehicles transporting students to the junior and senior high schools from the three other constituent districts Chesterfield, North Hanover and Springfield townships.
The state’s commissioner of education has yet to resolve the illegal apportionment of board members at the Northern Burlington County Regional School District where Chesterfield Township was given an additional board member that is a clear violation of New Jersey State Statute Title 18A:13-8.
This board position rightfully belongs to Mansfield Township.
To add insult to injury, Richard Carson, superintendent of schools in North Hanover Township, stated in an article, "We don’t need to go to the public for a referendum, and it’s through the efforts of Congressmen Jim Saxton and Chris Smith as well as Senators (Jon) Corzine and (Frank) Lautenberg that do a lot of work in Washington to support the Impact Aid Program."
This is not true for the taxpayers of Mansfield Township because impact aid at the Northern Burlington County Regional School District has been reduced from $2,.194 million in 1995-96 to the present allocation of $986,973.
Mansfield Township pays 39 percent of the tax structure at the Northern Burlington County Regional School District while Chesterfield and Springfield pays 22 percent and North Hanover pays 17 percent.
In the Allocation of Equalized Valuation Formula, which is perpetrated on the taxpayers of Mansfield Township by the State of New Jersey, North Hanover receives credit for 1,335 elementary students while Chesterfield receives credit for 265, Mansfield 546 and Springfield 346.
Why is this figure included in the formula since each constituent district of Chesterfield, Mansfield, North Hanover and Springfield votes on their individual district school budgets each year? How much more are the taxpayers of Mansfield Township asked to bear?
We are one of the host townships for the Burlington County Recovery Complex (the landfill, the dump) and also the host community for the Northern Burlington County Regional School District which includes the junior and senior high schools.
Now the county wants to force the Transfer of Development Rights Program on Mansfield Township.
Wake up Mansfield Township Taxpayers. Enough is Enough!
Ernest Dubay
Columbus
Thoughts on
‘chicken soup’
To the editor:
The remark by the 30th District’s assemblyman after Governor’s McGreevey’s state of the state Address "Chicken soup without the chicken. Nothing about property tax relief, school aid. Given the situation the state is in, those are key to the state of the state." requires comment.
There is an old adage that people who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones. Maybe we should coin a new one for elected officials i.e., that elected officials with short memories should not criticize the opposition party for something they failed to do.
During a Mansfield Township Committee meeting in January, the assemblyman stated he was introducing legislation to change the formula for unequal funding assessments to support regional school budgets.
This was one of the recommendations of the Task Force On Regional Schools, which he chaired. To my knowledge, no legislation was ever introduced.
If it was, it never passed, as Mansfield Township residents are still paying 39 percent of the regional school budget.
We never even received the soup just a promise of chicken soup in the future.
When questioned about property taxes, former Governor Christine Whitman in essence stated that she was not responsible for property taxes and had nothing to do with their increases.
This, while her commission of education was quietly approving school budgets which had been defeated by the voters.
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see the correlation between increases in school budgets and increases in property taxes.
While this was going on, the legislature sat like bubblehead dolls silently nodding their heads and saying nothing until election time.
This gave them the opportunity to criticize the party in power, Democrat or Republican, for doing nothing about high property taxes.
The property tax rebates and New Jersey saver plans, which provide some welcome relief to property taxes, are political pap fed to the voters to obtain votes.
However, they do nothing to change the tax base which support schools and have as much affect on escalating taxes as applying a Band-Aid to a chest wound.
Let’s face it both parties usually talk and talk about changing the tax base to support schools before elections, but neither has walked the walk after the elections.
The only hope for state taxpayers is a constitutional convention which could provide alternatives to the current tax system and let the voters chose their poison.
Will it happen? No.
If the voters get to make the Choice, the candidates won’t have anything to promise the voters.
On second thought, if the voters have to make the difficult decisions, maybe we should consider disbanding the legislature.
Oh, what a tax saving that would be!
Rahn O. Beeson
Columbus

