Newly elected Committeeman, Frank Germanio, declared that previously passed budgets by the Dennis Township Committee were a “Disaster”. In reality, nothing could be further from the truth. Like so many others who assume control, Mr. Germanio and his fellow Republicans have decided to blame their predecessors rather than adequately deal with the current issues at hand.
For the six years that I served on Dennis Township Committee— during a period of ever increasing costs and constantly reduced state funding—our bi-partisan committee passed budgets that were not disastrous. On the contrary, taxes were rarely raised and township services were fully maintained. This was accomplished by a combination of surplus use, costs cutting, consolidation, reducing full time staff, becoming more efficient and the use of grant monies we applied for and received.
In the most highly taxed state in the country, the township auditor, Mayor Glembocki, and his two cohorts have had the audacity to criticize us for not consistently raising taxes in the past. This budget year is no different than previous years other than the fact that the three novices who are in charge have not looked at all possible ways to close the gap without raising taxes. (In fact their first idea was to cut nothing, exceed the mandated 2% cap and ask the public to raise their own local property taxes by 40% via a tax referendum!)
It is a shame that the current ‘leadership’ has decided to politicize what should be a bi-partisan process. Suffice to say, the budgets that were passed by myself, Al DiCicco, John Murphy and previous committee members were just that. If not raising taxes is a crime—as Mayor Glembocki, Mr. Teefy and Mr. Germanio are implying—then I am proud to be guilty as charged!
