Democratic candidates for Township Committee say they will be vigilant to explore "every possible revenue" and control "every expenditure" in the municipal budget, if elected.
Thuy Anh Le and John Beggiato said in a statement that managing property taxes should be the priority for all elected officials.
On the revenue side, state aid has been flat since 2010 when Chris Christie became governor and aid to municipalities was reduced to zero in 2013 from $919,017 in 2007.
"This failure of a Republican governor to support municipalities as did Democratic governors before him has a tremendous impact on municipal taxpayers who then have to make up the difference or drastically cut critical services," said the Democrats.
They said they "will make every effort to advocate for Hillsborough in Trenton and involve and educate the community in doing their part to get their state legislators to represent our financial interests."
Beggiato and Le said they will comb through all municipal miscellaneous revenues to insure fairness to homeowners and businesses in fees, permits and licensing. They said they will "fight to make sure that developers in Hillsborough mitigate and or pay for negative impacts of development," such as tree loss and flooding from increased impervious coverage. Developers should also be required to provide appropriate road widening and paving, bike paths and sidewalks.
"Otherwise these items become the taxpayer’s burden," they said.
On the expenditure side, public safety and community well being must be paramount, they said. They said they will create a "comprehensive strategic plan for managing township expenditures without resorting to gimmickry."
They pointed to the Township Committee’s claims that 51 municipal budget line items were reduced or unchanged.
The Democrats said the "unchanged" items include "postage," "miscellaneous" and "meeting recording" while major line items for outside contractors, including audit services, legal, engineering, and insurance went up.
"Press releases don’t reduce taxes," they said.
The Democrats repeated that they would investigate the Township Committee negotiating for reduced energy costs using an aggregation concept that several neighboring towns have adopted. They said they have additional ideas for more sustainable maintenance practices that could free up resources for other purposes and "can result in real savings."
Thuy Anh Le has a master’s degree in business administration and John Beggiato a bachelor’s degree in business administration with an emphasis on finance. Both say they have years of corporate experience with applicability to the management and financial aspects of government.
Ms. Le also pointed to budgeting experience from her service on the Board of Education. Both she and Beggiato have managed the finances of several non-profit organizations, they said.
"The people of Hillsborough can be confident that their tax money will be vigorously protected and spent wisely by Thuy Anh Le and John Beggiato," they said.

