Readers play the blame game with higher taxes and less services
I’m not sure how linking a property tax increase to snow removal is a good idea ? Will that tax increase be rescinded if we have a mild winter next year ? Permanently raising the property tax base should be for long term cost increases, not to pay for snow removal in one of the snowiest winters in recent memory.
For those who’ve read their Village Budget Newsletters over the past five years, they will have noticed that all of the growth in our taxes has gone to pay for higher wages, pensions & healthcare. That’s despite a 10% cut in the Village workforce by our previous Village Manager, agreed to by the the previous Council. That has gutted our ability to respond to an Arctic vortex. Maybe if the previous Council hadn’t agreed to a retroactive 12% wage increase in 2011 for the previous Manager, or maybe if we hadn’t handed out 4% annual wage increases from 2010-2014 to some of our highest paid municipal employees – again, agreed to by the previous Council – then we wouldn’t be in this mess ?
Agreed though that we need better leadership – what about shared snow removal services ? If Glenrock, Waldwick, Midland Paqrk and Ho-Ho Kus can do a better job of snow removal, pay them a fee to help us as part of a shared service. That’s where the current Village leadership has let us down. But the wheels of budget cuts for snow removal were put in place in 2010 and 2011.
All of the increases except for the Manager was agreed on by our current Mayor. Look at the Council voting record
the reality is that even after the pay raise the Village manager did not make as much as his predecessor , who had several driving issues with village vehicles
Your right #2
Its time to outsource when we can. Give the current employees the option to transfer to other departs. Let the sanitation guys go to the street department.
Why?
Simple. We went to our own sanitation workers as a result of our ‘carter’ going on strike in 1969-1970 timeframe. In those days, no other private carter would bid against another (mob influence?) and prices went up exponentially every contract.
Fast forward 40 years. Mob is out of the NJ carting business and many carters are owned by public companies (waste management, interstate waste etc)
Municipalities have seen cost DECREASES now due to competition and no more mob control.
When you pay for Village employees to pick up trash, they get union wages, benefits, health care…AND retirement. This is an unnecessary cost since we can now get a good deal with private carters….
AND….no garbage pickup THU, FRI, and Today. They still got paid….by taxpayers…
However….look at Hillsdale. Private carter. They did not pick up Thursday due to weather…HOWEVER they DID then pick it up FRIDAY (make up day) AND their recyclables on schedule same day (FRI)
So there you have it…Hillsdale saves money…and the contractor gets the job done.
That,s all you got? My garbage didn’t get pick up. Swallow elephants choke on fly’s
Here is my thought #4 these company’s are aware that once you go to them and sell all your equipment and discharge village employees they now have the village captive. You may get the first contract at a low price but the next one will be higher and don’t you think these companies take to each other about contracts
Do you REALLY think the Mob is out of the carting business? guess again.
Its not like the old days where the industry was ‘controlled’ by the mob. Sure a few relatives have their carting companies, but the large public companies, such as waste management and interstate waste make the bidding process very competitive. If they wanted to crush the small ones they easily could since they have shareholder money.
In the ‘old days’ the mob made sure there were not any competitive bidders. that was the problem and it no longer exists.
#4 – Mob is out of the carting business.
Whoa.
Take your head out of the snowbank.
Situations like these just make me more self conscious about the amount of waste my household creates on a weekly basis.
I’m going to be doing more composting in the future, and try in as many ways as possible to reduce that footprint.
Better for the environment, cheaper for the Village, seems like a win win. Unfortunately, most regulars here will just complain that the tax-takers didn’t come by to take away the garbage, and that they got paid a living wage plus benefits to boot. The indignity!
Outsourcing is the only way. To have and maintain these services in-house puts you in the unsustainable position of having to provide an ever-increasing number of benefit recipients. It’s the employment version of a Ponzi scheme. I think these guys that provide our services are really nice people. I really do. I’m sure their families are also wonderful. It’s not a question of being mean, but a question of fiscal necessity. The Left’s answer to everything right now is a class-warfare approach of increasing taxes on those that are already being taxed to the point of being mugged. At some point it becomes stealing, and it cannot go on.
ok start with the paid fire dept. then go to the b o e. 3rd police rates.
You will not see any ‘givebacks’ from the union employees.
Its time to shift the costs of these ‘cadillac’ health plans to the union members.
Again, choosing to work for the government, whether municipal, state or federal, historically was for 1. ‘job security’, 2.’benefits’, and 3.’retirement’ , with wages below that of the public sector.
We now have wages well above the public sector without a commensurate decrease in # 1, 2 or 3. Something must ‘give’ and the taxpayers ain’t gonna give any more money.
As our taxes go up, we get tired of the never ending union ‘chorus’ singing that we have to ‘get used to less’.
The well has run dry.
People… Take a step back and look at the bigger picture. It is not just about decisions that this or the previous council made. It is definitely not about snow removal. It is not about the 2010 reduction in village staffing in a few unfortunate departments (employee-related liabilities have dramatically increased, NOT decreased). Read the Financial Advisory Committee report that was posted to the Village website a while back. It is eye-opening and spells out very clearly the situation that has developed over decades and is totally unsustainanable, without thoughtful (but dramatic) cultural and management changes across ALL village departments. Outsourcing may be appropriate in some cases. But, that is not necessarily a panacea.
#13 & 14 I have read the Financial Advisory Committee report and it contains inaccurate data, false assumptions and more important than those it has incomplete data. The people complaining about high taxes here are only telling half of the story. You don’t hear those people complaining about the higher salaries they earn here than in other states do you? And of course they aren’t complaining of the high property values either especially when they are going up! By a percentage ratio N.J. residents pay a similar percentage of their homes value in property taxes when compared to other parts of the country.
These are state averages of 2012 property tax as a percentage of home value.
New Jersey $7,318 2.32%
New Hampshire $5,230 2.18%
Connecticut $5,200 1.88%
New York $5,040 1.68%
Illinois $4,469 2.28%
Vermont $4,328 1.62%
Rhode Island $3,820 1.67%
Massachusetts $3,805 1.19%
Wisconsin $3,530 2.07%
Alaska $3,290 1.28%
The state of NJ and the Village provide more services (like garbage pickup, recreation services for kids, local police, assistance and social services for seniors) and an overall better quality of life for the tax dollars than most of the other states. When you look at the complete picture you see those who are complaining about property taxes are focusing on only one thing and not giving you the complete picture.
Well I don’t make more money because I live in NJ. I happen to like it here so I live here. Unlike most of the residents who hop on the train, I work from a home office doing business worldwide. As such, my ‘fees’ have to compete with residents of 49 other states and my potential clients don’t give a rat’s ass that my property taxes in NJ are out of control. And my property value hasn’t gone up of any worthy mention. I’m glad it hasn’t tanked more! But the REAL comparison of yours left out the biggest bite of the tax bill-the schools. (and for those of you saying more money=better education, just look at Paterson, which spends more per pupil than we do!)
Want to save taxes? Repeal ‘Abbot vs Burke’ ruling by the left wing NJ Supreme court.
Let me see if I have this right #16? You live here because you like it, but you want it to be cheaper. I like staying at fancy hotels when I am on the road, and I want them to be cheaper. Don’t they know that I don’t make more money when I stay at their hotels? They should charge less so that I can stay there and still make as much money as if I stayed at a cheap motel.
#16 I think you have something.
You are definitely clueless #17. Perhaps you are protected by a union. I work in free enterprise and thankfully the good economic conditions of other states permit me to earn my income doing deals THERE. I compete with businesses in TAX FRIENDLY states. I like living here because my friends are here. I happen to have done well enough to afford vacation homes in other states and perhaps I’ll just spend 181 days per year at the most ‘tax friendly’ one and NJ can do WITHOUT my contribution. It will take a few hundred union types to make up the difference to the NJ treasury. Keep punching that timeclock your mentality is what is running this state into to the toilet.