Joe Renna for Freeholder

Run, Joe, Run!

By Joe Renna

(Round About Peterstown) According to the Election Law Enforcement Commission, the county wide expenditures for the Democratic Party for the 2002 elections was $1,000,000. I'm no Milton Freedman but can the position of Union County Freeholder, that pays $28,000 a year, be worth that much? You bet it is.

The Freeholders hold the purse strings of a $341,000,000 budget. That's some righteous bucks. In fact it's your righteous bucks, the tax payer! And for the past three years in a row the county has raised their portion of your property tax bill almost 10% per year. There is no indication that next year is going to be any different.

Most people don't know what a Freeholder is or what the county does with the money it collects. If you look at your property tax bill you will see that about half goes to your Board of Education, about 25% goes to your municipality and about 25% goes to the county. In fact some people pay more tax to the county than they do their town. When the school or city taxes go up, everyone gets up and screams and hollers. When it comes to their county taxes most people don't even notice what is happening.

CONTINUE READING RENNA'S EDITORIAL. CLICK HERE.