Whither Goeth Our Beautiful County? Where do we want it to go? As I wrote in last week’s column, we are unusually blessed to be residents of such a county. I am talking of all the vast natural beauty of the sea, the sea breezes, the beaches, the wetlands, the open space, not to mention our proximity to the dynamism and culture of the important surrounding cities.
The question is: where do we go with this gift? How do we make our county an ever-more vital community? It is like a garden – for the flowers to bloom, there is much dirty work. For our county to blossom, there are many day-to-day demands to be met – the thinking and the grunt work of everyday life. In the modern world, these demands are ever-changing, as residents’ and visitors’ expectations change.
Compare the way we live today vs. decades ago – we have modernized enormously. We have to always be rethinking and improving, or the world passes us by. Our vision may need to change, as well as our ways of executing routine functions. What things are we doing the same way we have done them for years? Are there ways to accomplish them better, faster, cheaper? If there are, we are squandering resources that could be applied to fulfilling our visions and dreams.
Below are a number of the thoughts of Cape Issues members to improve our county or to free tax dollars for other undertakings, or reduce taxes.
Because many of the properties in Cape May County are owned by out-of-county residents with generally higher wages, many of whom find our property taxes a bargain, we could argue to lower taxes only to fixed-income or locally-working residents, thus maintaining our tax levels and allocating savings for desired improvements for all to enjoy.
Please review the list below and give us your feedback via our Facebook page, via Spout Off or by emailing publisher@cmcherald.com. Cape Issues will consolidate all input and then consider ways to move the dialogue forward.
Our thoughts:
• Create a county-wide Central Communications and Dispatch of emergency services to improve service and safety, and lower costs.
• Create one county-wide police department that includes all 11 municipal departments, the sheriff’s department, and the prosecutor’s detectives. This could reduce administrative functions and command overlap.
• Create one county-wide school district with four high schools (Lower, Middle, Ocean City and Cape Tech), an appropriate number of middle and elementary schools, and the integration of Special Services School District with Cape Tech. This could eliminate administrative overlap of our current 16 school districts while improving our educational offering to our public school population, which now is less than 12,200.
• Consolidate solid waste and recycling into a countywide system.
• Create one county-wide water and sewer utility.
• Create a single county tax assessment and collection system.
• Create a county Master Plan that manages growth, fosters environmental preservation and acknowledges the water supply limitations inherent in the Cape May County hydrology.
• A county-wide economic development program whose goal is to bring more full-time, year-round, living-wage career jobs to the county, including high-speed Internet capability necessary for commercial use (government supported?). Minimize regulations and disincentives to private-sector, job-creating businesses which grow local economies.
• Create a modern highway system in and out of the county for tourism and commercial use. This should include the long-delayed completion of Route 55 to the Garden State Parkway, replacement of our bridges, and consideration of a bridge to Delaware like the newly expanded Chesapeake Bay Bridge.
• Create a county-endorsed and supported green-energy initiative.
• Set limits on how to restrict the use of open space funding.
• Involve non-resident taxpayers in decision making.
• Change the system so we receive tourism tax revenue back from the state, and apply it to economic development initiatives. Create a county-endorsed and supported public-private and volunteer-based initiatives which foster a Cape May County Vision Initiative.
• Consolidate municipal government within natural geographic boundaries to for eight municipalities: Lower, Middle, Upper, Ocean City, Sea Isle City, 7 Mile Island, Wildwood and Cape Island.
These changes could redirect or save a significant percentage of the $750 million in tax dollars spent in Cape May County annually, while improving services. Our government is only as good as the citizens; with our collective support, encouragement and involvement, much more is achieved.
Art Hall
From the Bible
Obey the teaching of your parents. Their teaching will guide you when you walk, protect you when you sleep, and talk to you when you are awake. Proverbs 6
Town Bank – The hat? Dowdy Plain Jane Washington doesn’t understand a beautiful former model wearing European high fashion? Who knew?
