Middletown Cancels Budget Introduction For Wednesday Night

Well that didn't take long, I guess the Middletown Municipal Budget wasn't ready for introduction after all! Or was it because I let the potential budget increase out of the bag? Or was it a simple scheduling conflict that would not enable most of the Township Committee members themselves from being at tomorrow's meeting? I doubt we'll find out for sure.

But posted late this afternoon, just before the close of business, on Middletown's website is this simple note concerning the cancellation of tomorrow nights special budget introduction meeting:

The special meeting that was sheduled for June 2nd has been cancelled.

One has to wonder why this meeting was called for then cancelled so suddenly? If the reason for the cancellation was that it wasn't possible to have a quorum present in the first place then why make the initial announcement? Didn't the Township Administrator, Tony Mercantenate, find out if committee members could be present before making the plans for the meeting public?

Or, maybe the meeting was cancelled because of the potential 15% tax increase which seems to be needed in order to close the $5 million budget gap that the leaders of Middletown have done absolutely nothing thus far to close with only 6 months left in the year in which to do it? And just maybe the mayor is upset with Mercantante for scheduling this meeting six day before the June 8th Primary, when he will be challenged for his party's nomination by Lincroft resident Tony Avallone. Why would the acting mayor want to announce any kind of budget that could potentially include a massive tax increase just before an election anyway?

If this special budget meeting is rescheduled, look for it to be happen sometime within the next two weeks due to the deadline that Trenton has imposed on municipalities to have their budgets ready by. It wouldn't be surprising at all if this meeting doesn't happen however because of the fact that this month's regularly scheduled meetings happen on the 7th and 21st. The introduction of the budget resolution could be done at either of those meetings.

I guess we'll just have to wait and see what tricks Gerry and the boys have up their sleeves later this month and hope that CFO Nick Trasente can pull a couple of million dollars out of the Township's hat.