OFFICE OF THE MAYOR

Joseph M. DiBella

www.MayorDiBella.com

(732) 938-4500, Ext. 2102

Time to Hold the Line on Local Spending

January 8, 2007 – At every level of government the people of our community and across New Jersey are over taxed. We simply pay entirely too many in taxes. To make matters worse the state level reforms needed to overhaul most of the problems are nowhere in sight.  Here in Howell, our community is bracing for the outcome of the re-evaluation mandated by the County Tax Office. While the amount to be raised by taxes will not change in the aggregate, some residents will in fact be paying more. This issue has many residents very concerned about their ability to be able to afford to pay their taxes – my family and I are among them.

In light of these mounting issues and the uncertainty of the pending re-evaluation, I believe that the Township must take extraordinary measures to help the local tax payers. Accordingly, I am asking the Township Council to implement an immediate “spending freeze” to the 2006 levels. It is my recommendation that we apply this “freeze” to all non-contractual accounts and that we not raise spending above last year’s level for line item expenditures. The only exception would be for unforeseen emergencies out of our control. We simply need to find a way to do more with less and tighten our belts in these difficult times.

I will also ask the Council to impose am immediate hiring freeze indefinitely on both new and open positions. We simply cannot afford to add any new jobs or positions to the ranks of the government.

In addition, I will ask that we open immediate discussions with neighboring communities and towns across the County to determine what shared service coalitions we can form. The concept of joint purchasing, shared services and other alliances must be explored to find ways for us to reduce cost. In addition, we must find ways to share services, equipment and other resources in order to realize efficiencies that will help us to reduce cost.

Finally, I want to ensure that we are hearing from you the people of Howell Township. Our community is blessed with having a great many people with vast experiences, common sense and extraordinary ideas. No one has the monopoly on wisdom and so every resident should participate and give ideas and suggestions for dealing with our financial issues. Accordingly, I invite every resident to personally email your ideas for how we can make government work smarter and less costly. I’ll collect all your ideas and input and present them to the Township Council. While we will not be able to act on every idea, I am certain that through this process we’ll collect a tremendous amount of exceptional ideas worthy of our action.

I personally re-commit myself to the cause of doing everything possible to make local government do more with less. Please email your ideas to me at MayorDiBella@twp.howell.nj.us. Thank you in advance for your help and I’ll keep the community posted about our progress.

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