On Jan. 27, 2009, I attended the Edison Chamber of Commerce’s l8th annual State of the Township event at the N.J. Expo in Raritan Center, Edison. At this event, Mayor [Jun] Choi recaps his accomplishments in 2008 and announces his vision for 2009. In explaining his vision, he brought up the proposed plan for school additions at an estimated $30 million.
I don’t know how many times the people of Edison must send the same message — we don’t want another bond or more spending. Don’t they realize that we are in the midst of a global recession — i.e., cut expenses and no bonding. It seems to me that after the good people of Edison turned down two (2) bonds, you, Mr. Mayor and the Edison Board of Education, could figure it out. There are other options — return the kindergarten to half-day and/or split sessions.
Do you know that we have 17 public schools in Edison? —11 elementary, four middle schools and six high schools (four of which are private). Another school will increase taxes, add more school buses to our already congested streets, and, of course, we will need more crossing guards.
Because of the economic situation, things might get better when the Hartz property is finally developed. However, with that development, I would like to see no increase in our taxes for a few years. What a novel idea!
Another area that can be utilized: our libraries. These buildings do not get the traffic they did at one time. By using the libraries for school buildings and having the libraries incorporated into the high school buildings, we would increase the usage and not increase taxes. Let us be creative with the dollars we have and stop taxing our people. After all, Edison is the No. 2 ratable in the state, which means we collect more taxes than almost any other municipality. Think about that!
Now that you have “your team” in place, you can balance the budget, run an efficient township and work toward no more taxes.
Gloria Dittman
Edison