municipal budgets - THE RIDGEWOOD BLOG.

Harwin has shown she doesn’t have a grasp of the issues in the village. She shows by her alliance with Paul Aronsohn and her subsequent Facebook ads she is no more than a partisan extension of Paul’s betrayal of Ridgewood and the village taxpayers. That she embraces the actions of supporters Rurik Halaby and Jeff Voigt and their allergy to facts and decorum shows she supports their style, tactics, and deception. That her supporter Al Pucciarelli advocates a chilling proposal to ban video coverage of public meetings shows she is unqualified to preserve the rights of taxpayers. Her support and contradictory position on the money-losing garage proposal shows she has no comprehension of municipal budgets, fiscal planning, and tax burdens. That she proudly carries the loud support of ethically disgraced Roberta Sonnenfeld tells voters she is willing to break the rules when it serves her best.

Reader says Never before have the Ridgewood BOE and municipal budgets ever been stretched so thin

Never before have the Ridgewood BOE and municipal budgets ever been stretched so thin. During each of those waves in Ridgewood’s growth you mention above the BOE was still able to maintain their buildings and absorb the growth that resulted from these apartments. That is no longer the case. Our budget cannot afford to repair our current buildings, hire more teachers or build more classrooms. Unless you are looking for another $48 million dollar bond referendum in less than 5 years.

As a parent, I am tired of paying taxes and then being told that I need to raise money to pay for an outdated and unsafe playground, or new risers to replace the unsafe 30 year old ones for my child’s vocal concert or buy non-fiction books to fill the classroom libraries. All of that was covered by our BOE budget before years and years of this gradual growth.
All this growth also occurred before our streets were so filled with cars that even the traffic experts say we can’t handle one more car on our streets. I’m not sure how many pedestrians were hit by cars back then, but I’m guessing it was less than half the number we have today.

The point is, what is being proposed is a change to the Master Plan which would allow for enormous and sudden growth. Nothing like what you outlined above.