COURT HOUSE – Republican Middle Township Committee candidate Tim Donohue presented his Zero Tax Increase Budget plan to the AARP and the Middle Township Taxpayers Association on Wednesday. At successive candidate forums, Donohue outlined his plan, based on a review of recent budgets, designed to prevent a local property tax increase in 2012.
“I disagree with my opponents that we should spend $1 million on a complete property revaluation,” Donohue told AARP members at the Senior Center gathering. “We can make assessments more fair without spending a million dollars. The Tax Assessor works with home owners and we can find less expensive ways to adjust assessments without adding a million dollars to the budget.”
“If we pay for a full scale reval, we drop property values across the board. The result would be to raise the tax rate to make up the difference. We all end up right back where we started, except now we have to charge the taxpayers up to a million dollars for the reevaluation. It might make a good sound bite, but we need to be more thoughtful and fiscally responsible to make this process a win for the property taxpayers,” Donohue explained.
The official Democratic candidate Billy Sturm and the candidate supported by the Democratic Mayor and Deputy Mayor, Steven Russell, each supported the concept of a complete revaluation. The last time such an effort was undertaken, the cost was approximately $1 million.
At the Taxpayers Association meeting at the Old Historic Court House, Donohue told taxpayers, “People are scrambling to find ways to spend the money the Township is going to save as a result of Governor Christie’s pension and benefit reforms. For me there is only one place that money gets spent – tax relief!
“I am committed to using all of those savings to avoid a tax increase, not create new spending,” Donohue continued.
On issue after issue, ranging from the pros and cons of a property tax reval, to the 2% property tax cap, to the merits of hiring a full time solicitor and engineer, Donohue continually framed his answers in the context of cost versus benefit to the taxpayer.
“In these difficult economic times, I oppose any new spending that is not offset by reductions in other areas of the budget,” Donohue said.
Ordered and paid for by Cape May County Regular Republican Organization, 6201 New Jersey Ave.,Wildwood Crest, N.J. 08260
Cape May – Governor Murphy says he doesn't know anything about the drones and doesn't know what they are doing but he does know that they are not dangerous. Does anyone feel better now?
