The Future Holds What We Plan for It

Last month I wrote a column entitled, “We Choose to Live at the Shore, But We Want to Thrive.” Most of us love life in Cape May County, but there are some flies in the ointment. In that column I focused on the lack of a modern road toward Philadelphia; hopefully, we are on the way to fixing that. 
•    In this column, I want to touch on other factors. One of the most important is our college.  In the Herald’s six-part series last year about Atlantic Cape Community College, we highlighted opportunities academic programs with a career focus on our county: We need academic programs relevant to county residents and a renewed focus on both the traditional high school graduate and the older student. 
•    Greater integration with other educational resources within our county: We need to concentrate on a strategy that makes all of our high school graduates ready for entrance to introductory college courses.
•    We need a community college that is a center for learning and the development of new skills for our seniors. This area would become a more attractive retirement community if there were lifelong learning opportunities.
•    We need our new college president to take to heart that she has two counties to serve and that each has its own character and needs and we need a senior Atlantic Cape official onsite and responsible only for the Cape May County campus full time.
•    Atlantic Cape requires that our freeholders and the board of the college provide close oversight, measuring the college’s progress to clearly articulated goals.
•    And finally, we need our college to become a center for lectures and cultural growth. We must realize that the college cannot do this in a vacuum, but will require a concerted community effort under the direction of the college.
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Beyond the roads and the college, there are several other areas of needed focus. In March 2008, a community improvement group titled Cape Issues started to meet and subsequently polled people asking “What are the primary issues facing our county?” Overwhelmingly the response dealt with taxes being too high to afford.
There are several areas the people of Cape May County could devote energies to dive into the tax issue. We need to note, however, that all Cape May County taxpayers are not likeminded on this issue.
Second-home owners don’t appear to have an issue with local taxes, whereas people who work in Cape May County and are paid the prevailing wages of Cape May County do cite high taxes as an important issue.
As our county moves forward, we probably need to develop a bifurcated taxing arrangement such as Florida uses, where taxes imposed upon local workers are lower than on non-residents. That way governmental entities could continue to pay relatively high wages and benefits and locals could escape their current squeeze. 
The real task we all have before us is to see our businesses thrive and to increase the earning capacity of all of us employed here in Cape May County. We can achieve this through improving our highways and infrastructure, through creating ever-better educational opportunities, through our economic development efforts, and through regulation reduction and ever-more effective and efficient delivery of government services.
Adage states, a problem well put is half solved. If the above states what is holding us back, then we are already half way to solving our problem. If the above overlooks issues, please speak up now. After all, the quality of the solutions is in direct proportion to the quality of the description of the problem.  So let’s get going!
Art Hall