Because Middletown Can Not Control It's Finances, The Town Needs Your Help!

It's been 3 weeks since Middletown introduce a budget that calls for a 12.87% increase to it's municipal tax rate which has put a bad taste in residents mouths, now with just 9 day to go before the budget is adopted the mayor has asked those same residents for suggestions on how to lessen the increase in order to make it more palatable.

Just like it did in early May when the township wanted residents input on the defeated school budget, Middletown has place a "suggestion box" on it's website for residents to voice their opinions on what actions the mayor and his fellow committee members should take in the last days leading up to the adoption of the budget on July 19th.

If you have seen the announcement, you will notice that it states an increase of $0.0485 cents to the tax rate, which will increase the municipal tax rate from $0.35 to $0.3985. This increase as stated above will represent an actual rate increase of 12.87% and any attempt at sugarcoating it is dishonest.

The Township Committee has seen these increases coming for a couple of years now and have been doing very little to head them off.

In 2008 the Township was short $500k in health benefit claims which was brought into the 2009 budget. In 2009 the Township was again short by another $800k in claims that was brought into this years' budget. We need better planning in this area.

Last year the budget exceeded the 4% cap set by the State, to be allowed to exceed the cap at the time, the State required Middletown to forego their pension payments to the State but they would have to pay this back with interest. Middletown has decided to pay it back this year, this is another area where we need better planning.

Committeeman Sean Byrnes has been making valid suggestions for 2 years now on how to plan better and save money for residents, unfortunately his suggestions have been dismissed by the Republican majority. In Patrick Short's time on the Committee, he also made suggestions on savings only to have them dismissed.

To request input from the public on the eve of voting for a 12.87% increase when we are 7 months into the fiscal year is another sign of poor planning, the Township "suggestion box" should have been put in place last year November or December for this years' budget.

In February, Sean Byrnes posted budget suggestions on his blog. You will see that Sean has been advocating for taxpayer savings for quite some time.

If you feel so inclined to leave suggestions on the Township's website check out what Byrnes and Short have been advocating for over 2 years now. If any one of their suggestions make sense to you make sure you include them in your responses.