To the editor:
Was anyone taken in by the praise for the Kuchinski-Blake budget at the Hopewell Township Committee meeting on April 23?
In Hollywood, they have laugh-tracks to create a land of make-believe amused audiences.
In Hopewell Township, we have political cronies to create a land of make-believe public support. Whenever the Kuchinski-Blake administration needs to create support for themselves, all they need to do is dial-up their political cronies.
These political cronies are a dedicated band of political loyalists, who appear when the Kuchinski-Blake administration could use some make-believe public support. While repeating themes, if not exact words, as if reading from a list of talking-points, these political cronies could not speak highly enough about how wonderful is the budget of their fellow-Democrats on the township committee:
Democrat District 10 Hopewell County Committee member Peter Sandford, who was the Campaign Manager for all four Democrats on the current township committee and Kuchinski-appointee to the finance committee.
Democrat District 12 Hopewell County Committee member Jack Belmont, who is a Kuchinski-appointee to the planning board.
Democrat District 1 Hopewell County Committee member Linda Rogers, who is a Kuchinski-appointee to the zoning board.
Democrat-loyalist Courtney Peters-Manning, who is a Kuchinski-appointee to the planning board.
Democrat-loyalist Andrew Borders, who will, no doubt, be rewarded in the future.
Speaking of the budget, in her letter to the editor, Deputy Mayor Julie Blake praised her 2.48 per cent tax increase. Of course, anyone with a good memory or left-over campaign literature, will remember that, in 2015, Ms. Blake claimed that a more than 2 percent tax increase “busted NJ’s 2 percent cap.” Why she is proud of doing that is a mystery to me. Maybe she forgot her phony campaign rhetoric. And speaking of forgetting, when comparing the 2015 budget, I guess Ms. Blake also forgot the fire in March 2015, that destroyed every public works vehicle and that expeditious re-building of the fleet needed to be addressed in that budget.
Harvey Lester
Titusville