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Community Corner

Marlboro Council Election Day Facts.

As this is an election season for the township council and with three seats of Mr. Cantor, Dr. Metzger, and Ms. Mazzola up for grabs and with the incumbents beating the table with their record of accomplishments I thought it would be prudent for me to take look at incumbent assertions to make sure that I am truly making a right decision in my candidate selection.  My first stop in my research was the three incumbents Facebook page that really just focused on what I like to call “feel good” accomplishments during their tenure like Blues and BBQ festival, Shop Marlboro Program (more on that later) etc. My next stop was Council Vice President Mr. Frank La Rocca Facebook page that had a little more information on the claimed accomplishments of Mr. Hornik and the rest of the council.   In looking over their assertions it became clear to me that the current administration is truly playing a blame game with current Marlboro problems and the hard issues facing Marlboro taxpayers by either pointing fingers at Trenton, or the County or by looking back at previous administrations mismanagement for all of the things that went wrong. In doing this they are failing to look forward and take ownership and fix these tough issues whose resolution would benefit all of Marlboro. So let’s take a look at their assertions and verify against public records and documents that I used in my fact check process.  

1.       SURPLUS: Our opposition cries that the preceding administration left us with a 10 million dollar surplus. What they fail to tell you is that such a surplus was created by a budget gimmick in borrowing from the deferred school tax (using the monies belonging to the Board of Ed). During the 4 years of the prior administration 11.1 million dollars was borrowed on the backs of our children. In addition - between 6.5 million and 8.1 million of this phantom surplus was used for the budget expenses and spent on an annual basis!

Fact Checked - In truth the Mr. Hornik’s administration has done this in most of the years as well. As an example in 2012 the administration has deferred a total of $46,909,799.50 in school taxes which artificially inflated Surplus so it could be anticipate it as revenue. In the years it was done it was an ONE TIME REVENUE source equivalent to writing a check against your credit card for $2.5 million dollars, depositing it into your savings account and saying look, I have $2.5 million in savings. You eventually have to pay it back. For example, at the end of 2012, the combined Local BOE and Regional H.S. tax levies decreased and as a result, for budget year 2013, the prior policy of deferring school taxes to the maximum cost the taxpayers $453,485.50. This had to be made up by increasing taxes.

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2.       THE BUDGET: “The In 2007, when coming into office, the Hornik administration inherited a budget of 33 million in spending. In the past six years, the recession, dropping interest rates, energy, increased pension and benefit costs and other contractual obligations have risen over 14%. However, the budget has remained FLAT with spending in 2012 at 32.5 million and in 2013 at 33.1 million (which includes Sandy cleanup)”. A BALANCED BUDGET, at the same or less spending levels as 2006/2007 with NO reliance on borrowing to fund the budgeted expenses of the municipality”. 

Fact Checked – The budget for 2013 actually increased by approximately $300,000 but that is not really consequential and only tells one side of the story since the overall budget number on the revenue side includes monies raised by the tax levy, income from interest, state aid, etc. What the administration is not telling the average taxpayer is that it is really about only one number that really matters and that is the current and past local general purpose tax levy. From 2009 to 2013 that tax levy increased 23% from approximately $18.8 million to $24.4 million, leading to a property tax increase to an average Marlboro home owner of approximately $627.13 keeping in mind that the tax rates and levy’s increased every year for the last 5 years on average of $0.028 cents. As far claimed Sandy related expenses are concerned keep in mind that FEMA is refunding the township 75% of the cost it incurred for Sandy or approximately $1.6 million. http://marlboro-coltsneck.patch.com/groups/politics-and-elections/p/marlboro-receives-1-6-million-in-sandy-relief-funds.  As far as the administration claims that they are funding all budgeted expenses of the municipality without additional borrowing. Perhaps they can explain the below?

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A.      In May 2013 the Council approved a $71,000 Bond issue for capital improvements to the township swim club. While also claiming a profit from the Swim club in 2012 of approximately $340,895. Where is that profit?

B.      A new Bond issue for approximately $2.1 million to cover road repaving, pothole repair, and other capital improvements.

C.      $7.6 million in new Bond issue to finance capital improvements at the township water authority when pre-dissolution SURPLUS at the authority was misspent.

3.       “Commercial Retable’s are UP in Marlboro with more business attracted and thriving in our town than any comparable town in Monmouth County”.

Fact Check – How can commercial retables be up and 2013 taxes have increased 4.6%? Mr. Hornik likes to point out that Marlboro does not have a spending problem but we have a revenue problem. What Mr. Hornik and rest of the council will not tell you is that a majority of the revenue short fall is coming from a botched reassessment that was done a couple of years ago that forced a record number of tax appeals to filed by Marlboro taxpayers leading a decrease in property tax assessments from $6.2 billion in 2012 to $6.0 billion in 2013.  Well in my house shortage in revenue usually means cost cutting and elimination of certain nice to have/do things. Shouldn’t our municipality be as prudent with our dollars as we are with them and stop using a credit card to finance the township?

4.       Tax Relief Programs touted nationally that bring actual tax savings to residents that support local businesses aka Shop Marlboro.

Fact Check – If you look at Shop Marlboro objectively at first it seems like a great idea and an easy way to save on your property taxes. However, when you look closer at the program you realize that it is not a great deal after all. Shop Marlboro rewards program participants by allowing them to receive a “rebate” on money spent while patronizing local businesses up to a individual business defined “rebate” rate. So let’s say you go out to dinner and receive a gross saving of $10.00. The savings are collected by Finvest (the company managing the program), and is deposited into an account maintained by Investors bank. At tax time Finvest withdraws the $10 and pays your property tax bill with your accumulated savings, less 20% or as in this example $8.00. This is not inclusive of the float or the FREE use of the money that Investors bank collects on your rebate without paying you anything on that money. I don’t know about you but if I am going to participate in money saving program and support local businesses I want my money now and not at some point in the future at a discounted rate. A dollar earned today is worth more than $0.80 cents at some point in the future.

5.       The administration is claiming that Ms. Carol Mazzola joined the democratic team because she felt that somehow this was a better team to be aligned with.

The Truth – Ms. Mazzola flipped because she realized that she could not be reelected as a Republican after abandoning her constituents and party that supported her in her first term as councilwoman. Perhaps if Ms. Mazzola stuck to the conservative principles under which she was elected she would not have flip just to keep her office. Ms. Mazzola maybe has a good record in philanthropy but her reocrd as councilwoman is a lot less impressive.

6.       Consolidation of government that SAVED HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of dollars annually aka shared services.

Fact Checked – The only shared services agreement that the administration entered into was (what I call the low hanging fruit) an electricity purchasing agreement with the Board of Education. That’s like taking money out of one pocket and putting into another. If Mr. Hornik and the council were serious about shared services could have partnered with surrounding townships and entered into contractual agreements that could have eliminated duplication of services and departments especially in the biggest cost centers like Public Works. In fact the current administration has refused to sign the Governors Municipal Toolkit that offers more benefits to participating Municipalities outside of shared services.

For the record I am a registered Republican and support Marshall, Knight, and La Rosa for township council. I would like to think of myself as an independent thinker and did originally vote for Mr. Hornik, and all of the council members as I thought at the time they were a good choice for Marlboro. I guess I was wrong. On November 5th I think we need to seriously consider what is the RIGHT direction for Marlboro and not be Blue about our serious problems and fiscal challenges and lets elect true leaders that are not afraid to make hard decisions and let’s paint this town RED!

 

Michael Mirkin Marlboro resident of 14 years.




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