S. Amboy Taxes Rising $722,576 More

(Reprinted from Amboy Beacon, Sept. 22, 2010)


SOUTH AMBOY — The City Council voted unanimously last week to introduce amendments to the Calendar Year 2010 Budget which would increase local taxes by $722,576 and to schedule a public hearing at a Special Meeting to be held yesterday at 6 p.m. at City Hall, N. Broadway. The Resolution was moved by Councilman William Schwarick, seconded by Councilman Mark Noble and adopted 5-0. The amendments as introduced would increase the total amount of the CY 2010 Budget by $1,553,543, from $13,993,033 to $15,546,576, and the amount to be raised by local taxes by $722,576, from $7,129,425 to $7,852,001. The new tax-increase would be on top of the $39 hike previously-announced by the Administration and the Council on a home assessed at $266,000, the average in South Amboy. Using the numbers provided with the CY 2010 Budget as introduced, the new tax-increase would result in a $268 tax-hike on the average home.

According to the amendments introduced last week, 38 of 49 line-item accounts would be increased, while only 11 line-item accounts would be decreased.  A Special Meeting was scheduled despite the fact that Council President Fred Henry announced at the Sept. 1 meeting that a public hearing would be held
on amendments to the Calendar Year 2010 Budget at the Council’s Sept. 15 meeting. The calling of a Special Meeting to adopt amendments to the Calendar Year 2010 Budget was specifically rejected when it was suggested at the Sept. 1 meeting by former Councilman Stanley Jankowski, now a Board of Education
member. “You can’t pass it (the Budget) that night,” Jankowski insisted at that time. “You have to have two readings.” “They can do it the same night,” attorney Thomas Lanza, sitting-in for his brother, City Law Director John Lanza, stated.“Why not just have a Special Meeting on the Budget?” Jankowski asked. “You
could be sitting here for hours.” “Hopefully, that’s not going to happen,” Henry said, before moving-on to
another subect and then adjourning the Sept. 1 meeting. Holding a Special Meeting yesterday would preclude most of the public from knowing about the hearing and about the coming increase in local taxes
because the reporters for the two out-of-county daily newspapers that cover the meetings were absent from last week’s Council meeting and the reporters for the two weekly newspapers that cover the meetings do not publish on Tuesdays. A final CY 2010 Budget must be approved by the Mayor and Council no later
than tomorrow. At the Sept. 1 meeting, resident Eileen Ryan disputed city officials’accounts of why approval of the CY 2010 Budget by the state Department of Community Affairs (DCA) has been delayed for several months. Ryan said she spoke with a woman named “Amelia,” who she said told her that she was overseeing DCA’s review of South Amboy’s spending plan. “According to the information she gave me — and I don’t think she’s wrong— she told me that DCA made several requests to the City of South Amboy about items in the Budget that they needed more information about, and there was no response whatsoever from the City of South Amboy,” Ryan said. But Business Administrator Camille Tooker denied Ryan’s information,
including the identity of the person reviewing the CY 2010 Budget. “The person who’s reviewing our Budget is a male,” Tooker said. However, at last week’s Council meeting, Tooker said the DCA person doing
the review is named “Tina.” Henry said at last week’s meeting that the information given by Tooker was
correct, implying that Ryan’s statements were incorrect. “I called, and DCA did confirm what Camille said,” he stated. A short time later, Henry said that “some of it (what Ryan had said) was correct, yes, but the timeline wasn’t.” “I will make that call (to DCA) tomorrow (Sept. 16),” Ryan declared.