Ledger: Public says council keeping budget in the dark

In today’s Star-Ledger:

A group of parent-teacher association mothers and professional workers with questions about rising property taxes are calling for a separate public hearing next month on the proposed 2008 municipal budget.

The council has been insistent on having a budget hearing during its regularly scheduled Jan. 8 meeting, and then immediately voting on adoption of the spending plan. Such a budget hearing/council meeting format was followed Nov. 27, to protests from residents, when the council introduced a budget in time to qualify for state extraordinary aid.

After receiving $700,000 in relief funds earlier this month, the council planned to routinely proceed to a final adoption of the budget next month. But residents who said they were denied an opportunity to give input on the budget last month are demanding to be heard now.

“They should have a separate budget hearing so more people will attend, and then take people’s comments into consideration,” said Rayba Watson of Jerome Avenue. “They seem to be wanting to have it during a (council) meeting, and then voting without considering what we say.”

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In a usual retort, Council President Leonard Gilbert said notices of the budget and meetings are published (in fine print) in the local newspapers. The Ledger quotes him as saying that he’ll personally notify residents of the Jan. 8 meeting. Let us know (tips @ thehillsider.com) if you’re one of the lucky ones he gets a hold of.

Residents have cause to be upset. The council never has any discussion or explanation of their budget — unlike the Board of Education, which distributes massive amounts of information to go along with the lengthy PowerPoint presentations the schools superintendent makes each year about the school budget.

Then again, the public gets to vote on the school’s budget but not the township’s.