N.J. mayors vent anger at legislative leaders at League of Municipalities
Matt Friedman | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
ATLANTIC CITY — New Jersey’s legislative leaders got an earful today from angry local officials during an event at the State League of Municipalities Conference.
“If we ran our towns like you run this state, we would have been tarred and feathered a long time ago,” Beraards Township Mayor John Carpenter said.
“You guys are skimming off of everything. I mean, organized crime doesn’t skim as well as you do,” said Point Pleasant Beach Mayor John Barrella, seconds before apologizing for the organized crime comparison.
Carpenter’s complaint was that much of the discussion had been on whether to raise the gas tax and cut the estate tax, but that he had not heard anything about reducing or controlling spending. Barrella’s beef was that his town couldn’t levy local option taxes that target tourists so it could reduce dependence on property taxes.
They were just two of the many gripes lobbed at state Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D-Gloucester), Senate Minority Leader Tom Kean Jr. (R-Union), state Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto (D-Hudson) and Assembly Minority Leader Jon Bramnick (R-Union) during a wide-reaching, hour and a half discussion.
Many of the issues, like pensions, transportation and property taxes, might seem dry to most people, but not elected officials grappling with strained budgets and angry constituents.
Piscataway Mayor Brian Wahler, who sat on the panel, said of the Legislature: “If they don’t meet, that’s actually a good thing.”
https://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2014/11/nj_mayors_vent_anger_at_legislative_leaders_at_league_of_municipalities.html#incart_river
Cut estate taxes would be a very good idea seeing that NJ ranks last.