While I am not often moved to write when you make editorial comments, the recent article posted on the One Village One Vote referendum cried out for a response. Below are my thoughts that you may publish with the proviso that I am identified as the author.
Ridgewood NJ,Village Council Candidate Siobhan Winograd spearheaded a group called “One Village One Vote” ,which promoted the idea that eliminating the school budget vote would somehow increase voter turn out , yes you read that right , voting less would somehow increase voter turn out . The group also claimed that eliminating the school budget vote would also increase voter participation and increase transparency, not voting would increase transparency.
Ridgewood NJ, the League of Women Voters is attempting to weigh into the current legal fight over the legality of the ,“One Village One Vote” petition to consolidate election and forever raise your taxes with with less taxpayer oversight .In a massive blow to taxpayers ,the November “yes” vote effectively eliminated the Ridgewood School budget vote . The school budget make up 2/3 of the Village property tax bill and stands at a whopping $115 million dollars .
Ridgewood NJ , the Village of Ridgewood is currently appealing the Superior Court Judge Estella De La Cruz ruling that put the question to eliminate the school budget vote on the November ballot .
“As the only statute cited on the original OVOV petition was from Title 40, governing the initiative petition process, the Village Clerk was only compelled to cite concerns within that law in her response. It was not her responsibility to address the requirements of the Title 19 statutes governing the moving of school elections until the petitioners chose to cite N.J.S.A. 19:60-1.1 on their amended petition. The judge chose to ignore that.”
Ridgewood NJ, Can someone please explain why Superior Court Judge Estela M. De La Cruz ordered Village Clerk Heather Mailander to add the One Village One Vote group’s petition to November’s ballot when the petition clearly didn’t include the number of registered voter signatures required by law (NJSA 19:60-1.1)?
Ridgewood NJ, Photos of the unlawful “One Village One Vote” billboard being removed from the Village of Ridgewood owned train trestle. Investigation underway.
Ridgewood NJ, while the debate over whether to retain the school budget vote or not in the Village rages on , comments continue to disappear off the the “One Village One Vote ” ?
Ridgewood NJ, the realty of school budgeting is that many prices of the budget puzzle are not covered by the 2% cap.
False Claim #3 (continued): “If our Board of Education develops a budget that calls for a school tax increase greater than 2%, a public vote is required on that budget.”
TRUTH: To be clear, if our local elections are moved to November, there is no public vote on the school budget. The so-called 2% cap is only on a portion of the school budget There are high priced expenses, like health insurance cost increases, that are exempt from that 2%. In truth, the budget could double, triple, or more over that 2% cap without ever triggering a vote. Case in point, 2018. Our Board of Education elections were in November that year, so there was no budget vote despite a 3.62% increase. That extra 1.62% above the so-called 2% cap represented $1.5 million charged to the taxpayers for the 2018-2019 school year. And once in place, that extra $1.5 million is charged each and every year going forward, compounded by each year’s tax increase. That budget proposal was very vocally disapproved by residents and carried by the affirmative votes of only 3 out of 5 board members.
Ridgewood NJ, this is one of the crazier claims made by “One Village One Vote “. “One Village One Vote ” is a special interest group looking to eliminate the Ridgewood School budget vote . The Ridgewood school budget is a whopping $155 million ! The Ridgewood school district need more supervision ,not less, in both its curriculum and budgeting process.
Sadly, the desperate “One Village One Vote” faction has now resorted to defaming residents who disagree with their position by facilitating the spread of blatant lies about dissenters on the heavily censored Ridgewood Moms and Dads Facebook page (a page administered by Ms. Siobhan Crann Winograd, a “One Village One Vote” petitioner).
For the record, I did NOT seek to “overturn” May’s municipal election results as a Mr. Charles Kime suggests in a recent post made on Moms and Dads, and NO e-mail addresses of any Ridgewood voters were included in the response to my OPRA for information about the validity of mailed in ballots associated with that election.
I challenge Mr. Kime to produce any evidence of intent on my part to “overturn” May’s municipal election results, or that I was responsible for supplying the names and e-mail addresses of Ridgewood voters to the “Keep Our Vote” organization.
Lastly, please vote NO on the municipal question via the mail in ballot you recently received.
Ridgewood NJ, At the very end of the long mail-in ballot, you will see in small print, a question about consolidating all elections to November. This means no vote on the school budget, and a crowded ballot which can confuse voters who are voting on state and national issues.