West Orange cannot get to AFFORDABILITY without ACCOUNTABILITY and RESPONSIBILITY! Our town is currently 171 Millions Dollars in debt! I have attended every budget hearing thus far, spoken at them all, and asked diligent questions – not just with the goal to save tax payers money, but to also expand our innovative solutions to our budgetary challenges. While it is certainly important to highlight the challenges facing West Orange, it is also important, if not more so, to offer real solutions.
Multi-Year Budget Planning
I strongly believe West Orange should implement multi-year budget projections. While this is not a firm detail of all projected spending, it does help us gather a better idea as to what 1 year, 3 years, and 5 years of our projected expenses may be. Our town should have short, mid, and long-term revenue and cost expectations, and clear plans of how we intend to use your tax dollars, not just next year, but into the future. This will help us identify positive and negative trends, ask tough questions, and identify year-to-year cost savings and projected expenditures. This will also help limit the hectic and frantic nature of starting at such high proposed increases and spending months to – rightfully so – work to lessen the burden.
Supporting Small Businesses
Our town must do more to attract small businesses AND to support our current businesses. I have been meeting with business owners in town to identify ordinances that have proven to be impediments or have delayed their successes.
While I personally do not partake in cannabis, our cannabis dispensaries and businesses have tremendous potential, both to thrive and to help us with our tax burdens. Many of our neighboring municipalities allow their dispensaries to operate at the same hours of their liquor stores. West Orange currently does not. That not only hinders our businesses to be competitive, but it means people will leave our town during those hours to seek open stores elsewhere. I have advocated for the ordinance to be amended at multiple council meetings, and I am hopeful it will pass in the next few weeks. Bloomfield just reported it collected almost $800,000, and Maplewood $413k (up 1.1% from last year). last year in cannabis transfer tax revenues.
Strengthening the Shop Local Program
The West Orange Shop Local program and card are great, yet underutilized and often unknown opportunities. This program allows for residents to receive property tax rebates by shopping at local participating businesses in town.
We should:
- Make this program more known to residents
- Expand the list of participating businesses
Fair and Accurate Sewer Billing
Your sewer bill should be a reflective of usage, not based on an expectation. We cannot unfairly tax residents based on projection.
We need to have a long overdue conversation about dedicating funding streams. For example, the fines collected from e-cigarette and other health violations can go to fund their enforcement. The same can be applied to traffic violation fines being utilized to improve pedestrian safety.
Rewarding Long-Term Residents
West Orange should explore the potential of a 30 year resident one time tax deduction
Accountability Through a Forensic Audit
I support a forensic audit to review our previous spending and provide additional oversight and accountability
Chasing Every Grant Opportunity
We MUST be more aggressive in our pursuit of grant opportunities
