Today's letters: our state needs to get back on track & the Hamilton mayor candidates need to stop bickering
The facts about New Jersey are simple. Our state has one of the highest tax burdens in the country, including the highest property taxes. Our economic and job growth has consistently lagged behind the rest of the country over the past five years. We have a badly eroding infrastructure of roads and bridges along with a transportation fund that is broke. And finally, our pension system is $40 billion in the hole and, at its current pace, will completely run out of money within the next 12-15 years. All of this has led to nine credit rating downgrades, over the last five years, to the nation's second worst rating. Our governor is probably thrilled to be spending time out of state.
Any solution to solving these problems must begin with reforming pension and health benefits. While not all of us will agree with the recent pension commission report, which recommends shifting employees to a less expensive cash balance type plan, the basic premise makes sense in helping to restore the fund back to health. More importantly, the report recommends a constitutional amendment which would require the state to fully fund the pension gap over time. Our defined benefit pension plan is too expensive and New Jersey's budget will never be able to handle $6 billion annual payments in the future.
Some suggest raising the millionaires' tax, cutting business incentives or borrowing $50 billion from the US Government. I suggest that it is time to stop raising taxes and borrowing money in New Jersey and focus solely on what we spend. We are taxed and surcharged at every angle in this state and taxpayers, along with job-creating businesses, will eventually go elsewhere. We are in competition with other states for taxpayer and business revenue...and we are losing.
So let's reign in benefits and stop raising taxes as a starting point. Let's further review all discretionary spending on an annual basis, not just when there is a budget crisis, to eliminate wasteful spending. At the local level we need to encourage more consolidation and shared services as there are still too many municipalities and school districts in our state. The two Princeton's merged in 2013 and saved taxpayers over $2 million.
Let's get our budget back into shape and make New Jersey more competitive and affordable once again. These problems should be a wakeup call for our elected officials to get to work and, more importantly, work together to find solutions to these problems. Time is not on our side.
Jim Vandervort
Robbinsville
To the Democratic and Republican Parties of Hamilton Township:
Just stop it already!
We get it, it is an election year. Are you really going to put us through two more months of this back-and-forth bickering?
As a new resident of this town, I am looking forward to voting for this important position and what it means for living here in the next four years. I have been following both the mayor and her challenger on their various social media channels so that I can vote with confidence in November.
And yet the only messages I hear coming from either side have been these letters to the editor. They are often filled with vague accusations that are backed up with little-to-no evidence. It is all finger pointing and mud slinging. What they are not providing are reasons why the people of Hamilton should be voting for either candidate.
What is worse is that these letters are only coming from the people with personal connection to the candidates - members of the administration, spouses of the candidates, or people with personal vendettas against the mayor. This pathetic interoffice gossip should be left in the break room of the municipal building and not spread out on the pages of the local newspaper.
To the incumbent mayor and her party - how about telling us what you have accomplished in the two years since the last campaign? What has not work so well during that time and how will Ms. Yaede correct this in her second term?
And to the Democrats - do you know how hard it is to find out who exactly is running this year, let alone what that person stands for? Get her name out there. Give her a personality. It is not just about discrediting the current administration, it is about replacing them with someone better.
We know that votes will be hard to get in this off-cycle election. Although I plan to be there to cast my vote, I find it very hard to pick either side given their parties' recent behavior.
Scott VonSchilling
Hamilton
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