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TOWN HALL'S TOP SECRET TAX BUDGET
What Are They Trying to Hide?
By Sergio Bichao, dahiller.com
The politicians at Hillside's Town Hall introduced this year's fiscal budget in August. However, the people who will be providing the revenue for the budget - Hillside homeowners - have yet to be shown any part of that document.
"I can't understand why a week in advance is not enough time for people to make comments," Council President Sam McGhee said, referring to the budget's release date of one week before its final adoption.
State law provides that municipalities give the public at least one week to review the budget before its approval, but Hillside is the only town in Union County to resort to this "bare minimum".
There is no way that any Hillside resident will be able to look over the budget in a week. And that's the whole point. If residents were given time, they might ask questions or point out suspicious expenditures. That's why the Council and Mayor are only giving people 8 days to look it over before the vote. By the time anybody finds something to complain about, it will be too late: the budget will have the Council's approval and the tax rates will be ready to bill.
And when Hillsiders do find reason to complain, Mr. McGhee, never lacking in obscene insolence, will most likely say: "Well, the Council gave residents to time to review the budget. If they had any complaints they should have voiced them at the hearing."
The Star-Ledger's Jason Jett reports, "The spending plan is not being made public sooner because township officials are revising what essentially was a 'temporary budget'."
This is a cockamamie excuse. No budgets are ever finalized. As Hillside school board's Business Administrator Ken Weinheimer recently explained at a public meeting, the school budget "is always a work in progress" even after being voted upon and adopted. There are always factors that pop up from week to week, or even day to day, which are impossible to accurately foresee. Nevertheless, the school board - and just about every other town in Union County - still makes its "temporary budget" available to the public before the referendum. As soon as the board introduces the budget, it is published and even distributed at no cost to residents wishing to peruse it. The school board also holds multiple public hearings to answer public concerns and questions.
But the Hillside Township Council and Mayor prefer to run our government secretly in the dark. Take for instance the 33 percent pay raise that they just awarded themselves. Notice how they voted on it during the summer, a time when many people are on vacation and don't read the papers. Town Hall simply doesn't want people to know what it's up to -- at least not near election time. Citizens of Hillside, like citizens of any other town or city, have very short memories. Everyone froths with anger as soon as taxes are raised, but by Election Day they all forget. This explains why Elizabeth, Hillside's neighbor and partner in political crime, tweaks its budget so that residents pay the least taxes nearest the elections. Even though taxes in total are higher, residents pay most of it during one quarter and less of it during the other, thus giving the illusion that taxes were reduced during the year.
There is no good reason why Hillside's budget should not have been available to the public as far back as August. The fact that is was not is evidence that the Council and Mayor are up to no good.
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