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Given that a town of roughly 65,000 people will have to cover a $79.2 million spending binge (up from $76.4 last year): Click the bottom left corner of your screen, then Accessories, then Calculator.
And don’t count the $170 you got last year for the regionalization of local fire departments. That’s been eliminated. So many homeowners’ tax bills will top out at more than $400.
“The budget was a very difficult one to do,” said the ever-articulate Mayor/State Senator/Assistant Schools Superintendent/Multi-Pension Recipient-to-be Nicholas Sacco.
Jerry DeMarco Publisher/Editor
This is the same power-wielding pol who wants to siphon money from your LIBRARIES to help keep the people he gave jobs in the school district employed.
For those of you who don’t know yet, Sacco was wearing his state Senator’s hat when he introduced a bill in Trenton allowing municipalities to tap into the surplus accounts of their public libraries.
“Many libraries are holding an enormous surplus, a good deal of which came from the municipality to begin with,” said Sacco (D-Bergen/Hudson). “Given the fact that many municipalities are now struggling due to a loss in revenue and state aid brought on by the recession, this bill will allow one healthy partner in the community to help out the struggling partner.”
Sacco didn’t suggest giving up any of the three salaries he gets. He didn’t try to reduce a school administration he bloated with toadies.
Where I come from — THE TOWNSHIP OF NORTH BERGEN — we used to call this type of library tap a shakedown.
If Gov. Christie signs the bill, what happens if those libraries that sacrificed their surpluses now find their funding cut in the future? There will be no rainy day fund to turn to, will there?
North Bergen government will keep dry, though.
For their part, the puppets known as the Board of Commissioners mandated 10-percent cuts from all departments — which will surprise no one if it means reductions in the number of actual employees who do the jobs instead of the higher-paid, desk-bound friends and relatives beholden to Sacco for their all-but-guaranteed administrative positions.
EXACT FIGURE$: If approved, the North Bergen municipal tax rate will be $21.36 for every $1,000 of property value, while the school and county rates sit at $16.03 and $9.48, respectively. The owner of a $140,000 home will pay approximately $6,565 in overall taxes for the 2011 fiscal year, as compared to $6,316 last year. Unless one of you beats us to it, CLIFFVIEW PILOT will formally request a full listing of administrators and their salaries. We’ll add the total and divide by the number of residents. Then you’ll see how much of your average $6,500 annual tax bill is going where and for how much.
There will also be no replacements for retirees or others who leave (something we used to call “attrition”).
“The three biggest items that drive the budget are cops, firemen, health benefits, and actually a fourth, pension, and they are all going up considerably,” the township’s business administrator said, setting the stage for an attack on the very people who keep you safe, while the massive group of school administrators are conveniently ignored.
Pension costs aren’t “actually a fourth.“ They’re first and foremost, the PAC MAN of budgets, especially when your mayor is also your assistant schools superintendent AND a state senator, and his girlfriend works for the Board of Education, along with FOUR of her sons.
No talk was raised about cutting any of their salaries or letting any of them go, likely out of fear of crossing Sack o‘ [fill in your own noun].
But here’s where they silently slip in the knife: Along with the budget, the township commissioners approved a $3.7 million bond ordinance to borrow for street, sewerage, building and machine repairs. And you know what borrowing means: That loan must be repaid — with interest.
The commissioners also inked a $421,433 contract with English Paving, Co. of Clifton for work on Boulevard East from 71st to 89th streets. Sidewalks, lights, benches — you know the kinds of things that are going to better educate your kids, make their lives safer, keep the streets clean and plowed, etc.
Here comes the best: $1.5 million was set aside for a left-hand turning lane on 91st Street into the mall on Tonnelle Avenue. Most municipalities make the developers themselves responsible for taking care of road work around their property as a condition of approval. This time, it’s coming out of YOUR pocket.
But this is North Bergen, Jack. It has not one but two boulevards of broken dreams.
Vigilant residents might want to formally seek the information on what other contractors are getting the work — and for how much — and what connections they have to Sacco.
I’ve known Nick Sacco a long time. I was privy to a private conversation he once had with a potential judge whom he told in so many words would have to contribute heavily to the Democratic Party just to be considered. Christie is trying to put a stop to any say state Senators have in who becomes judges, and Sacco is obviously one of the reasons.
For all the political pull he has in the county, Sacco is Old School, first trying to horse trade, then blaming the Republican for everything from poor schools to global warming. After that, he became a bully, taking our libraries’ lunch money.His “not for lack of trying” excuse rings hollow, especially when you consider he once held FOUR pension-eligible jobs until he was forced to resign as principal of one the district’s schools.
Until people stand up, band together and shut down the Old School, it will continue to take money from their pockets and use it not to make a better community but to line the pockets of its “team.”
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