Letters to the editor

Borough budgeting misleads public

To the editor:

   
The Herald reports that Candace Gallagher said the most recent reduction in the borough municipal budget was made possible in large part by moving $20,000 of Public Works spending to the separate Water/Sewer budget. She neglected to mention that the $2.722 million Water/Sewer budget now has over $723,000 of municipal costs hidden in it, by my accounting.
   Only $223,000 is justified. At least $500,000 of municipal costs are paid by water/sewer customers. This $500,000 is equivalent to a rate of 23 cents per $100 in property taxes.
   Isn’t it wonderful that we can hide the true cost of government in our Water/Sewer budget? Why not put all of the municipal costs in that budget? There is no law or ruling against doing so. Then we would have no municipal taxes to pay, just higher water/sewer bills for those that use higher amounts of water then other users.
   The Division of Local Finance, New Jersey Department of Community Affairs ruled against my complaint four years ago when I questioned the practice. This is the same group that may be up for indictment by the U.S. Attorney. For them there is nothing that municipal officials can do that is not allowed by their interpretation of the laws. As to the New Jersey Constitution requiring equal protection of the law, they couldn’t care less.
   Ask any former Hightstown Borough Council person and they will tell you that without the ability to hide municipal costs in the Water/Sewer budget we would not be able to survive the high cost of our municipal tax rate. The only way to describe the procedure of hiding the true cost of our government is cheating. I have come to believe that cheating is the American way of life and the political way of life.
   We cheat our neighbors by not having current actual property tax assessments. We cheat our citizens by not having an income tax instead of property taxes to fund the costs of government. We cheat our citizens of honest government by giving into special interest. We cheat in sports with body enhancers. There is no end to examples of how we cheat in business, government, sports, taxes and life. We already are like a third world nation that operates through bribery except we operate through cheating since the laws against bribery are strictly enforced. How do you make laws against cheating without destroying a few forests?
   For many, cheating is just the game of life. Caveat emptor is our motto. Our packaging, our foods, our drugs and our president are involved in cheating the public. But do we expect our government to cheat us? Who cares? Why not? They do.
Eugene E. Sarafin
Hightstown