the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, a reader summed it up best,” Moving the school board election to November would not alter the public’s ability to vote for the best board candidates, which would happen whenever the election was held. It would in fact improve nothing and serve only to remove residents’ ability to approve or disapprove of the proposed budget. Our school budgets have become bizarrely bloated and represent moneys that are not appropriate for the size of the town. We deserve the right to vote for or against them.”
Election consolidation to appear on November 3rd ballot!
Dear Ridgewood Community,
We are pleased to announce that Judge De La Cruz ruled in our favor today to place the question of election consolidation on the November 3rd ballot.
We are incredibly grateful to all our supporters and signers and we look forward to discussing and promoting consolidation in a thoughtful, meaningful way over the next few weeks.
In the meantime, please ensure you and your whole household are registered to vote and if you have not done so, please follow us on our website at www.onevillageonevote.com
Thank you again to the Ridgewood Community. November Ballot here we come!
Bob Fuhrman
Matthew Lindenberg
Stacey Loscalzo
Deborah Steinbaum
Siobhan Crann Winograd
The One Less Vote operation is a scary turn for democracy. They are excited to give government more power and less accountability and take away taxpayer say.
They cite other towns in NJ who are dumb enough to have surrendered oversight of local government spending as a reason to do the same. Who looks at ANYTHING NJ government does and says: “That’s a good idea! Let’s follow that”
There are over 18000 voters in Ridgewood. Why not let them decide. You are assuming everyone is a dolt.
Do you vote on the Ridgewood budget? The State budget? The Federal budget? The Library budget?
Superior Court Judge Estela M. De La Cruz ruled last week that Village Clerk Heather Mailander violated the Faulkner Act by rejecting the group’s second petition, filed on Aug. 13.
“This court concludes that Petitioners were deprived of a substantive right protected by the New Jersey Civil Rights Act when the Respondent, acting under color of law, completely prevented them, and therreby the voters of Ridgewood, from exercising that right to place the legitimate issue for a vote on the November 3, 2020 ballot,” wrote De La Cruz.
At least one town in NJ (I think more) thought again and moved the school board/budget election back to the spring.
So many people get all fixated to the point of derangement when it comes to voting for the President. However, the vast majority pay little to no attention to local politics. It’s the local politics that has a far greater impact on your lives than the national stuff.
Seeing the advocates for this initiative makes me immediately suspicious of some hidden agenda
I would not compliment a cook UNTIL AFTER the meal has been served. The same is true of budgets. I like voting on the school budget in the spring – after digesting the school year’s value. Moving the vote to November and then removing the school budget vote altogether makes no sense if we are attempting to tie money-spent to a quality education.
This initiative is outrageous. How dare anyone suggests that we should vote on something that will remove our ability to vote!? These people are a bunch of morons. I will never ever ever vote to remove my ability to vote on the school board budget.
Vote NO on this. They are trying to remove our right to vote on the BOE budget, the largest portion of your property tax bill.
“There are over 18000 voters in Ridgewood. Why not let them decide. You are assuming everyone is a dolt.”
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Nice strawman – I assume you are part of the One Village One Vote cabal (or very misinformed).
One Village One vote is COUNTING ON most of the 18000 voters NOT voting so they can hold sway by mobilizing their people to vote.
The fact that they chose the name “One Village One Vote” belies their duplicity.
One Village One Vote SOUNDS like a good thing since it SOUNDS like everone gets to participate in the voting process, but in actuality it is TAKING AWAY a vote (the “second”spring School Budget vote) since voting on the school budget after school has started is effectively useless.
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Their name of their group should actually be:
One Village One LESS Vote
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“This initiative is outrageous. How dare anyone suggests that we should vote on something that will remove our ability to vote!? These people are a bunch of morons. “
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Unfortunately, they are not morons. They are subversives following a well thought out plan to grab power away from residents.
Also, unfortunately, they have a very good chance of succeeding.
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“Do you vote on the Ridgewood budget? The State budget? The Federal budget? The Library budget?”
No but there are not 2/3 of m property taxes.
NO, we do not get to vote on the Village Council budget. It is currently not allowed, by law. If I could, I would.
But I am allowed by law to vote on the Board of Ed proposed budgets. And these jackasses want to take that away from me. No fucking way. Never
These idiots. They kept saying we could vote if the increase exceeds 2%. Excuse me, what if I want to vote if the increase is under 2%?? They want to take that away From me. Hell no. JUST VOTE NO!!!!
Law should be changed.
If you do not have children in school, you do not have to pay that portion of property taxes.
I get tired of subsidizing the children of wealthy parents.
Pay for your own brats.
Ya’ll realize that we didn’t vote on the school budget between 2014 and 2018? And, we all hard opportunities to comment on that budget? And, that for all of those years except for one, the budget was at or below a 2% increase of the tax levy? And the only year that was above 2% was because of accounting for the addition of full day kindergarten. That year, the increase was 3.62%…1% was for full day kindergarten which the voters approved in a November second question. The .62% was approved by the BOE but when healthcare costs came in lower than projected the .62% was returned to taxpayers. Just sayin’.
What was the point in public comments or input between 2014-2018? We had no leverage. They did not have to listen to the public. This year there was tons of public input and then a vote. And it paid off. You think you are so cute and folksy with your y’all. I think you are arrogant and uninformed.
The 2% cap is a meaningless distraction. There are exceptions for health care, pensions, and payments on debt. All of which are significant parts of the budget. Debt service is particularly troubling – the exception is for the payment, not the actual size of the debt itself, which is much larger and lasts a very long time.
Not ignorant nor misinformed. Rather, an educated comment adding something for people to actually think about based on facts. So many comments and sadly it appears the sole purpose of this blog is to rile everyone up and hopefully bring out the worst in this community. Start fights and provide a platform to bash anything you don’t agree on blindly and maliciously.
All for free speech though so good for you!
Thinking positively it is cathartic and harmless for some of you in need of an outlet and we should be thankful you are behind keyboards here and on social pages like Ridgewood Moms and Dads, not out in the real world.
lol love the comments , who in Ridgewood with a huge school budget would give up the Right to pass judgement and vote on it ,I agree with PJ the schools should be monitored more not less , keep the budget vote , One Village No Vote is clearly running cover from someone , developers, school administrators, teachers union …..
” who in Ridgewood with a huge school budget would give up the Right to pass judgement and vote on it…”
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Most of Ridgewood’s residents
because they are
RICH and STUPID
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Sad, but true.
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Looking at advocate names is enough for me to vote against.
for the other side of the OVOV story – please check – https://keepourvote.com/
One poster points out the fakery about the 2% cap and how there are multiple potentially big ticket items that could blow up the budget and still be ‘under’ on a technicality. The scary part is that the school administration recently progressed to a very advanced stage the idea of borrowing up the wazoo to build a State of the Art performing Arts center that would have been funded by …debt … the service of which would not have ‘counted’ as an increase. This is a very tangible example of the sort of thing that will go ahead without the voters’ approval, if this OVOV thing passes. I really take issue that, putting a spin on this group’s logic … I am thought to be such a simpleton I can’t understand a school budget so I should just vote for BOE and trust the school administration to make tough choices that impact Other People’s Money?
Dear “Ya’ll realize that we didn’t vote on the school budget between 2014 and 2018? “,
As a matter of fact I did realize. Did you realize that the extra 1% you thought was for full day K , that extra million dollars we paid, did not actually pay for full day K? There was no full day K that year. That was a trick that got the BOE an extra cool million from the taxpayers. Add that to the other .62% and that’s an extra $1.5 million that we pay not just that year, but every year, plus interest. Did you realize that two Board members recommended an alternate budget that many residents supported, but the other three, including Sheila Brogan decided to stick it to the taxpayers anyway? A budget vote that year would have saved the taxpayers all that money. Chew on that.
Wait. What does voting on the school budget actually do? Do they change it significantly or any? Also, can’t the majority of voters choose new board members if they don’t like the numbers they’re presenting? Also, can’t the administrators find a way to eventually change the budget process so the budget is available for review in November? It seems shady to me that a group would want to keep a small voter outcome cozy thing going under the guise of not having input an the budget process. What’s the matter? Afraid to loose power if an actual majority is voting?
lol , you mean you are to lazy to vote ?
Irrelevant on how often I vote. (Every chance I get). The point is to capture the actual majority, instead of the historical low amounts. It makes me suspicious that people are fighting so hard to preserve what has been a historical low voter outcome. Is it really an issue of School budget? What actually happens when one is voted against? NOTHING. Also, as I mentioned before, why can we effectuate change by picking new board members or by changing the budget reporting dates? Why would you not want more people voting? Or is it that you don’t want many voting?
it makes every everyone suspicious over what people are hiding by trying to take away the $115 million school budget vote
Donny B – the flaw in your argument is that the only way you can get people to vote is in November. How ridiculous. If the people are interested they will vote. And I for one am interested in voting on the School Board budget which is massive and I want a say in it. Why would you want to take this right away from us???? From yourself???
Donny B if you vote every chance you get, well guess what, you will have one less chance if this stupid initiative goes through.
Anonymous (figures)
Why won’t anyone answer any of my questions? I feel like I’m at a protest where all you keep doing is repeating the same thing. What actually happens when a budget is voted against? Can a budget be cancelled or changed significantly? Is this right to vote you all keep repeating actually something? An answer to anyone would be great.