Patten should waive salary or end ‘challenge’
By: Vic Monaco
When is a challenge not really a challenge?
When the challenger knows it’s a safe bet that those he’s challenging won’t take him up on it.
Such was the case last month as Hightstown Mayor Bob Patten once again took the opportunity during budget sessions to "challenge" members of the Borough Council to give up their salaries something he said he would be glad to do.
Once again, none of the council members took the bait. Only one even commented. Walter Sikorski told the mayor that as a retired senior citizen on a fixed income it wasn’t something he wanted to do.
Maybe not the answer some taxpayers would like to hear, but at least he was being honest.
As for the mayor, we say shame on him on two counts.
First of all, he only earns $4,800 and each council member is paid $3,600. If every local leader were to agree to give back their salary (and that’s obviously unlikely), that would equal $26,400 or a little more than one penny on the local tax rate, which is poised to rise again this year. Not exactly a big impact on the borough’s big financial woes.
But the argument can certainly be made that every penny counts.
More importantly, if Mayor Patten thinks borough government leaders should give up their salaries for the good of the cash-strapped borough, then why does he only bring it up every year and never do it himself? If he did do it, wouldn’t there be more of a chance of the all-Democratic council falling in line, if only not to be outdone by the Republican mayor?
The answer seems clear: political grandstanding.
And the cliché works perfectly here: It’s time for Mr. Patten to put his money where his mouth is or just give his annual "challenge" a rest.

