Reduce governments to cut expenses

To the editor

   Time for a real change.
   I have taken notice over the last couple of weeks the impact on people’s tax bills based on reassessments and the amount of whining that has been in the media regarding these increases.
   However, I have also been amazed about the lack of ideas to reduce the spending that has caused these increases. Well, here are some ideas that should be seriously considered if we are going to continue the services that we expect at tax rates we are able to afford.
   First however, let’s all realize that the vast majority of spending that requires our money is the school budget. Saying that let’s get started.
   Consolidation of school districts:
   1.) It has been reported in various media outlets that New Jersey has more school boards then the states of New York, Pennsylvania and Texas combined. It is time for consolidation of BOE’s and elimination of costly and non-valued overheads, which include eliminating redundant high paid administrators.
   2.) Eliminate the requirement for foreign language education in pre-high school grades, not necessary and not good value for money!
   3.) Reduction in assistant principals throughout the organization, management is constantly preaching, "to do more with less" so let’s see if they can practice what they preach.
   Consolidation of common services between townships:
   1.) Consolidation of accounting, HR and other common services among multiple organizations into a shared service organization, again eliminating overhead and leveraging management resources.
   2.) Consolidation of management function (i.e. police, fire and parks commissions) among adjoining townships, again stretching management as well as potentially leveraging the services provided.
   Open space preservation:
   1.) A three-year moratorium on spending money to procure open space. Do a study to determine if we are getting our money’s worth.
   In addition I would suggest that in the future all requests for these large capital requests are submitted to the voters for an up or down approval.
   This is a start and I challenge other residents of Hillsborough to addmore to the lost of cost cutting as I know there is more than should be considered.