Posted on 40 Comments

Readers says Financial Advisory Committee report and it contains inaccurate data, false assumptions

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Readers says Financial Advisory Committee report and it contains inaccurate data, false assumptions

First of all the report does not say the village should not have a paid fire dept. 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 are not 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.

The state of NJ and specifically the Village provides more services (like garbage pickup, recreation services for kids, local police & Fire services, assistance and social services for seniors, just to name a few) 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.

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.

Posted on 12 Comments

Reader says Outsourcing may be appropriate in some cases. But, that is not necessarily a panacea

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file photo Boyd Loving

Reader says Outsourcing may be appropriate in some cases. But, that is not necessarily a panacea.

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 unsustainable, 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.

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Posted on 18 Comments

Readers play the blame game with higher taxes and less services

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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.

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Posted on 19 Comments

Reader says There is a limit to what property owners will pay, and we are there now.

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Reader says There is a limit to what property owners will pay, and we are there now.

I have run many businesses in my long career with tens of thousands of employees. Thanks for the compliment, but the Village manager job’s compensation wouldn’t cover my expense account for a month.

Having said that, when a business (or municipality in this case) is overburdened by generous compensations (=pay for you pinheads) and generous benefits (health insurance and retirement), the ONLY way to be able to continue paying these employees their increases is to ‘raise prices’ and ‘raise profit margins’.

In ‘simple speak’ so y’all can comprehend (=understand), that means raising property taxes. The residents are not about to stand for a property tax increase that can be avoided by outsourcing the services that can be accomplished by anyone with a pulse.
I saw in the paper that the Village advertised a position for an equipment operator that was grossly above what a private sector employee would command (what they would GET for pay)

So maybe you simpletons can understand. EVERYONE is replaceable. Your union contract can easily be converted to toilet paper. Do yourself a favor, if you expect job security, make some recommendations for increased productivity (=work harder and do more). Whining and complaining will make your jobs disappear.
In the real world, when wages become uncompetitive, we move manufacturing to states without unions, such as South Carolina and Alabama. The unions lose members, and the lackey politicians in the Northeast lose a taxpayer, which just shifts the burden (=amount of taxes) to other who are unfortunate enough to still live here.

There is a limit to what property owners will pay, and we are there now.

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