The "Want to be Assemblyman" has a penchant, a real knack so to speak, for the written word.
It is a bit unfortunate though that most of what he writes about are gross exaggerations or half truths. If you paid much attention to him or his letters, you'd think that all of Middletown's problems were caused by Democrats in Trenton and the only way to fix Middletown was to get rid of Governor Jon Corzine and all those terrible, liberal,unfunded mandate happy democrats.
It doesn't seem to matter to him that most of todays problems started with Christie Whitman when his beloved Republicans controlled Trenton and it also doesn't matter that none of his letters offer solutions or tell us how he would fix a problem, they are just rants about how the democrats are the problem.
His latest letter was posted at the Atlantic Highlands Herald this past Friday, it's more of the same rhetoric that we've come to expect out of him, blame,blame,blame and no solutions.
So I was quite happy to see that Pat Walsh decided to take on Gerry's letter on her Middletown Musings blog. She did a good job so I have decided to copy and post it her blog entry here with Pat Walsh's comments in blue. :
There goes Gerry again, who hasn't met an adjective he doesn't like. He pounds his usual themes always concluding that the problem is OVER THERE... He never seems to get that he has a responsibility in this as a township committee member. Bloated government... what about two township lawyers in one year? 9But for Gerry the issue is personal, if Chris Christie succeeds then Gerry plans to move up to the legislature. Sorry Middletown, then we will have three legislators who have brought ZERO dollars back to our town.
Reversing Course on Bloated State Government
For the second year in a row, Governor Corzine has delivered a crushing blow to Middletown by proposing another enormous cut in municipal aid. (2%) It should be noted that the very term “municipal aid” is actually a misnomer. In reality, this is money sent to Trenton by Middletown residents in the form of income taxes, sales taxes, corporate taxes and any number of other fees and taxes. The tiny portion of the money that is returned to Middletown and other suburban towns helps pay for essential services and infrastructure maintenance. As a result of this punitive move by the governor, the pressure on local property taxes intensifies exponentially.
COMMENT: The crushing blow to taxpayer's is the addition of a second lawyer to the township budget, the purchase of a new township property adding to our already bloated debt service, The hiring of a lobbyist at 60K, bonding for the Shadow Lake project only to admit that it will never get off the ground becuase the plan was flawed. Gerry, like his favorite candidate CC seems to have forgotten about the 7.6 Billion dollar hole in the budget created by the recession. just a hint, essential services do not include hiring all your GOP cronies to the Sewerage Authority with free health benefits and pensions. The only reason the tax pressure has intensified exponetially is that the GOP committee members can stop spending money.
What is most frustrating is that the governor has chosen to preserve billion dollar, elective spending programs such as COAH, schools construction, universal pre-school, Abbott funding, FMLA and aid to distressed cities, among others. The latter saw a staggering $127 million sent to Union City, Jersey City, Camden, Newark, Paterson, Asbury Park and Bridgeton in 2008. With the current economic situation and suburban towns struggling to maintain basic services, it is patently unfair for the state to take even more of our tax dollars to fund these programs.
COMMENT: Hey Gerry, Let's just guess what happens if even one municipality goes under? The bonding rating for all would increase exponentially putting asll towns in even worse shape. It is patently unfair that you will take 6 months to produce a budget, which you have already spent 40% of before you even start making cuts, while democrats are struggling to find areas of the budget to save the taxpayers money'
To make matters worse, the governor has burdened Middletown with millions of dollars in unfunded mandates, which are state-ordered spending decrees with no state funding to meet the mandate. This places suburban towns in the precarious position of putting the health, safety and quality of life of every taxpayer in jeopardy through Draconian budget cuts to try and offset the loss of municipal aid that is, simply put, the residents’ own money to begin with.
COMMENT: The reason Middletown finds itself is a precarious state has something to do with the draconian spending that the GOP has hoisted upon us. Lats years increase alone was 7.1%and even with the new tax rate I bet Middletown will participate in the Pension Deferral program even though none of its legislators voted for it. That means that the decrease we might have seen in our taxes next year due to a decrease in the amount of Debt Service will disappear.
Clearly, New Jersey cannot continue down this road of skyrocketing taxation and wasteful spending on ill-advised government programs. Our only hope is for every taxpayer to make their voices heard this November and reverse the course of our current unsustainable, bloated state government.
COMMENT: Clearly Middletown cannot continue down the road od skyrocketing tax increases imposed on us by GOP governmentusing our precious tax dollars on wasteful spending like two township attorneys.( one of whom only recently came off the cushy Sewerage Authority.) The unsustainable and bloated local government has to change it ways or be replaced. Clearly Gerry needs to start taking responsibility for his own decisions that have left Middletown with hugh tax increases.
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