To the editor:
It’s a bad budget at wrong time.
The adopted Manville Borough Council budget sends the wrong message to all our residents, especially those still hurting after Hurricane Irene. This is not a Council budget. And it is surely not a bipartisan budget.
Business as usual won’t continue much longer in this borough because it will be unsustainable. As more homes are abandoned and knocked down after the next great flood, and a slew of property re-evaluations hit spreading the tax burden to everyone else, property taxes are headed way up; while home values continue to fall.
The audacity of some of us to say it is just another 10 bucks a month when we already have the highest property taxes in the nation. And we continue to offer 100 percent paid health insurance for life as one retires no matter what the premiums cost. In the real world, companies would go bankrupt doing so. But why change anything in Manville that favors the taxpayers?
It is a sad day for this governing body and for the taxpayers of Manville. Our form of government is no longer strong council, weak mayor. Our municipal by-laws were trampled upon. Having a finance committee is a complete and total waste of time.
More “belt tightening” surely could have been done and don’t let them tell you otherwise. And we should have received some state aid as a severe repetitive loss “flood town” to offset the flood expenditures we endured. I guess it was too much trouble to fill out and put in the application with Trenton?
I have been fortunate in life and can afford my property tax increases while I am still working. I feel sorry for the unemployed or the elderly living on fixed incomes and for sure the forgotten flood victims of Manville who have lost so much emotionally and financially.
Hopefully the taxpayers of Manville will remember who’s fighting for them as opposed to those who like to “continue business as usual” and have unquestioned higher property taxes well into the future. For the public record, the votes were three “yes” votes by Councilman Lou Petzinger, Councilman Ed Komoroski and Councilwoman Sherri Lynn. They offered no cost-saving suggestions.
With three abstentions in protest by Councilman Steve Szabo, Councilwomen Susan Asher and myself, with the mayor breaking the tie and voting in favor of his own proposed budget and tax hike. It’s “business as usual” in Manville.
Richard Onderko
Borough Councilman
Manville
