Robert Kecskes, chairman
Citizens for Tax Choice
Hopewell Township
As many of you know, 34 members of Citizens for Tax Choice have been as busy as Santa’s little helpers collecting signatures to ensure the recently passed ELSA bond ordinance is put to a public referendum.
The ELSA ordinance requires all Hopewell Township residents to pay off a $4.1 million bond to reserve sewer capacity for the southern part of Hopewell Township from the Ewing-Lawrence Sewerage Authority (ELSA) wastewater treatment plant. Even though only a small fraction of the current residents of Hopewell Township would be served by ELSA, the majority of the Hopewell Township Committee believes everybody should pay for it.
The petitioners would have no part of it. We obtained approximately 1,700 signatures in 18 days, while only 667 were required to place the ordinance on a referendum. Based on the volume of phone calls and e-mails we received, we could have probably gained several hundred more over the next few days.
These 1,700 signatures were submitted to the township clerk on Monday afternoon. She will have until Dec. 29 to certify that all who have signed our petition are valid registered voters. If at least 667 are authenticated, voters would have a chance to vote on the new bond next year. The date would be determined by the Township Committee.
We were looking for 700, and we got 1,700! We would like to sincerely thank all of you for taking the time out of your busy days to sign our petition to place this bond ordinance before the taxpayers for an up or down vote. This effort was truly “democracy in action.” Your encouragement was enormously uplifting!
