A bettor’s guide
to Brick’s future
Since election night there has been a lot of panicked chatter about all of the imminent, radical changes the township will face once the newly elected Republican majority takes control of the Township Council.
If you’re a betting person, the smart money is on evolution, not revolution, as they say. Today we handicap the odds of some of the rumored election ripple effects occurring.
The GOP will commence firing police immediately (infinity-1). First, there are civil service laws regarding employment that make this impossible. Second, many of the hires under Democrat Mayor Joseph Scarpelli were aided with federal COPS grants which demand staffs remain at certain levels once accepted. And third, there’s not a party in America that wants to be known as soft on crime.
Major service cuts and layoffs will be required for the GOP to fulfill its pledge not to raise the tax rate in 2004 (7-1). It will be difficult to avoid some level of cuts, but the Republicans do have a valuable card to play. Assuming the administration’s estimate that the February snowstorms accounted for almost 2 cents of last year’s 3.8-cent increase is accurate, the Republicans already have an important head start. Barring another "storm of the century," the council/administration can absorb some budget increases into a tax rate that was already inflated for that one-time freak expenditure.
The GOP is going to abandon the Foodtown site and sell it to developers (20-1). There was probably no larger point of agreement between the parties on any issue of the election than the future of the Foodtown tract. All sides wanted to find a recreational use for the property that would be profitable, or at least sustain itself financially. The residents backed the Democratic council on this issue and would not stand for seeing all the work and promises of the last year undone.
SummerFest is over (15-1). The GOP never said it wanted to eliminate this concert series but have been pining for years to get full access to the numbers behind it and see if it really does pay for itself, as the present administration claims. If not, it’s realistic to expect the SummerFest format to be tweaked or cut back, but it will surely remain in some form –– at least for the immediate future.