To the Editor:
Assemblyman Andrew Zwicker, together with Assemblyman Roy Freiman, in their letters published in the Hillsborough Beacon dated Sept. 13, proudly claim to be have worked on a number of pieces of legislation on the environment.
Perhaps someone should let them know that the environment in New Jersey is just fine. Creating laws to solve a problem that does not exist is not only waste of time but increases cost of products and services to the consumers, and makes our industry less competitive globally.
My family and I have lived in Hillsborough for over 30 years and not once have we experienced the threat of polluted drinking water, apart from when there were some repairs being done, or breathed dirty air. Furthermore, with the polluting industries like the chemical and manufacturing shrinking at a rapid pace in New Jersey, there is less likelihood of the environment being adversely affected. If anything, it will only get better. It makes one wonder the value of legislation that the Assemblymen have been so diligently working on?
Assemblyman Zwicker was elected to control spiraling property taxes, and he specifically stated that in his election brochure that he would work hard to freeze or see a reduction of the property taxes.
Well, while he spent all his precious time working on the environmental issues that don’t exist, the property taxes have just continued to increase, and education costs taking a big chunk of that. Hillsborough in particular has been unfairly treated when it comes to state aid for education. The so called incumbent he defeated was Ms. Donna Simon who was fighting hard to get a fair share of the education funding from Trenton for a number of towns so as to reduce the burden on the property taxes. It is the Democratic Party majority in the New Jersey assembly that failed her.
What is even worse is that Gov. Murphy, instead of increasing education aid to the towns that were undercompensated reduced it further. Hillsborough, for example, will see a reduction of about $500,000 in education funding, which will further put pressure on the property taxes. And yet despite all this, there has not been even a whimper from both the Assemblymen Zwicker and Freiman opposing their governor, who happens to be a Democrat. Since they have both failed to deliver on their promises, they do not deserve to be reelected.