HAMMONTON BLOG

Members Login
Username 
 
Password 
    Remember Me  
Hammonton Blog -> Hammonton Democrats Blog -> Why did Ed Wuillermin put unnecessary pressure on the Republicans?
Post Info TOPIC: Why did Ed Wuillermin put unnecessary pressure on the Republicans?
Anonymous

Date:
RE: Why did Ed Wuillermin put unnecessary pressure on the Republicans?
Permalink   
 

Admin wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Use all the pretty colors you want. Here are the facts.

1. In 2005, the year before HF came to office, the Democrats led by Anthony Falcone worked with the Republicans to vote to raise the debt to the highest levels in Hammonton's history. You used to say Anthony was useless now you are giving him credit for LEADING the entire council, make up your mind. And it was not the Dems who led the vote for this debt. It was the Republicans with the vote to bond the new Town Hall at 11th Street. That is what drove the debt so high.

Sorry to confuse you with facts but the original town hall bond was in 2003.  The extra $6M in 2005 had nothing to do with town hall.

2. They raised the debt more in that one year than had ever been done before. True. Bonding for a new town hall would have that effect.

Ditto.  The new town hall had nothing to do with the massive jump in 2005.

3. HF has LOWERED the debt. and as soon as Anthony was no longer on council Hammonton First raised the debt right back up to the highest in history. And there is still time left in this year to make a new high, let's see if that happens.

As the mayor has already explained, as more debt is paid down, debt will be lowered further this year.

4. When HF said the debt was high and the surplus was near zero, just like now these same people called HF liars. Now we know from the auditor's report it was the truth. Now that they have been caught as the liars, the Democrats just change their lies to new ones. I guess that is a certain North Jersey out-of-towner who switches from Republican to Democrat on a reguilar basis that is telling them to do this. If HF believed that the debt was so high, why did they bring it right back up to that level this year? As far as the surplus, they were using a particular date, we were refering to the whole year, semantics. How do you switch from R to D on a regular basis? And yes, he is of the same opinion. That is why he switched!

Again, debt will decrease again this year thanks to the HF's fiscal responsibility.

5. HF lowered the debt and raised surplus. Already answered

6. HF has had no tax increases for two years at the municipal level. The school even had no tax increase this year. Agreed, however we disagree with the means used to do this.

Yes, you would disagree with saving money.  Oh well.

7. In 2006, when HF was trying to save money to fix these problems, Anthony Falcone demanded to pocket over $10,000 from the taxpayers. What do you mean demanded? Anthony had several choices, he could accept the insurance coverage and thereby cost the Town over $18,000. By doing so he would have made things easier on his family because all deductibles and copays would have probably been covered by the secondary insurance. He can take the buyout offered by the town which saves the town 50% of the cost of the insurance. Or he can return the money to the town. Anthony is a hard working man who makes a good salary in his postition, but he is not as wealthy as some current members of council to be able to refuse part of his salary. He chose the second option to save the town close to $10,000. He compromised down the middle and still provided for his family. He is a man of integrity who stands by his choice. 

Actually, no Anthony Falcone did not save the town money by pocketing cash.  As anyone knows, you cannot have two insurance policies on yourself covering the same thing.  That is one of the first questions asked on an insurance application.  Falcone already had State insurance so he wouldn't need or get duplicate insurance from the town.  He simply took the cash.






__________________
Anonymous

Date:
100 Replies..Great Job
Permalink   
 

dohevileyeevileyebleh100 replies ...... Great Job ...... with the blog.

1st 100 reply blog .........keep up the great blog!!!!!!

smileyawnfurious

__________________
Admin


Status: Offline
Posts: 1241
Date:
RE: Why did Ed Wuillermin put unnecessary pressure on the Republicans?
Permalink   
 

Yes you can have two insurance policies on the same thing. Many people have more than one life insurance policy. Many people have more than one health insurance policy. It is not double dipping, it is extra coverage. If you have one health insurance policy where you work you can buy extra coverage for yourself, or if you take on a second job you can accept the coverage from the second job in addition to your first. It is part of the compensation you receive for working for the second company. Buyouts are down in the private sector all the time because it can save the second company money. In this case the individual took the buyout to save the town money but still provide for his family. No matter how hard you try, you can't make something wrong out of this. If the other individuals could afford to turn both options down we can all commend them for it but it doesn't make the other individuals who chose option #2 wrong. It is their choice, not yours!

As far as the debt being lowered this year, the figures I qoute came from the same company that the Mayor qoutes for last years figures. They DID factor in the debt payments for this year and the end result, according to Bowman & Co., is that the debt at the end of this year will be the same as at the end of 2005.

You keep saying that the debt did not result from the town hall, well fill us all in, what was the debt from.

No matter what caused our debt to be this high, we can not continue in this direction. We need to start paying down the debt and we have to stop the current borrow and spend tactics of HF. You can not justify bonding $4,700 for fire equipment. You can not justify bonding $11,500 for airport improvements. You can not justify bonding $29,000 for lawn equipment. We will be paying for these things for 13 or more years. We have to start planning for the future and planning for these purchases. We need to cut up the credit cards and start being responsible adults.
Ammirato, Falcone and Ripa recognize this and will work together as a team on council to put Hammonton back in the right direction.

__________________
Anonymous

Date:
Permalink   
 

Admin wrote:

Yes you can have two insurance policies on the same thing. Many people have more than one life insurance policy. Many people have more than one health insurance policy. It is not double dipping, it is extra coverage. If you have one health insurance policy where you work you can buy extra coverage for yourself, or if you take on a second job you can accept the coverage from the second job in addition to your first. It is part of the compensation you receive for working for the second company. Buyouts are down in the private sector all the time because it can save the second company money. In this case the individual took the buyout to save the town money but still provide for his family. No matter how hard you try, you can't make something wrong out of this. If the other individuals could afford to turn both options down we can all commend them for it but it doesn't make the other individuals who chose option #2 wrong. It is their choice, not yours!

In the private sector if you don't want the insurance, companies do not give you a bonus.  In fact, most of the time people have to pay for part of their insurance costs out of their paycheck.  

Whenever you get life insurance from an employer, one of the questions asked on the application form is if you or your family have other insurance.  No, you cannot "double dip" and get reimbursed twice for the same item. 

If Anthony Falcone were concerned about saving money, considering he already had State health insurance, why not do what the HF people did and give up the buyout?

Saving over $10,000 per councilperson allows that money to be used on other areas of the budget and to keep taxes down.  How does Falcone propose to cut costs... he has to start somewhere... this is an easy one.  He already has insurance so he wasn't really giving anything important up.

As far as the debt being lowered this year, the figures I qoute came from the same company that the Mayor qoutes for last years figures. They DID factor in the debt payments for this year and the end result, according to Bowman & Co., is that the debt at the end of this year will be the same as at the end of 2005.

I think we agree here, HF is lowering the debt.  Yes, HF would like to lower it even faster, but that would require even deeper spending cuts.  Would you support those?

You keep saying that the debt did not result from the town hall, well fill us all in, what was the debt from.

As Anthony Falcone knows, there were hundreds of thousands of dollars bonded under terms like "various items."  The shame is that all that money was spent with such poor organization.

No matter what caused our debt to be this high, we can not continue in this direction. We need to start paying down the debt and we have to stop the current borrow and spend tactics of HF. You can not justify bonding $4,700 for fire equipment. You can not justify bonding $11,500 for airport improvements. You can not justify bonding $29,000 for lawn equipment. We will be paying for these things for 13 or more years. We have to start planning for the future and planning for these purchases. We need to cut up the credit cards and start being responsible adults.
Ammirato, Falcone and Ripa recognize this and will work together as a team on council to put Hammonton back in the right direction.

The way to reduce debt is to to exactly what HF is doing.... reducing costs.  However, if everyone fights and says "don't stop spending on my favorite item" then there is no way to save money.

Sure, it is nice for Anthony Falcone to get money from the town.  It will be nice for Robin and Mike's pocketbook to also get money if they are elected.  But they have to look at the policy HF set for the past two years, be responsible adults as you say,  and realize that they have to waive their right to that money to help set an example of how important it is to save money.






__________________
Anonymous

Date:
Adams Rehmann & Heggan on their way out?
Permalink   
 

Does anyone have a comment on Mike Pajic telling people that the Republicans would replace Adams, Rehmann and Heggan as town engineers if they are elected? Does anyone know much about Pennoni Associates? I understand that is a big engineering firm with one of their offices in Vineland.

Was it the Republicans or the Democrats that dumped ARH once before?

__________________
Admin


Status: Offline
Posts: 1241
Date:
Why did Ed Wuillermin put unnecessary pressure on the Republicans?
Permalink   
 

In the private sector companies DO offer buybacks for insurance. It is a fact that they do it and it saves them money. If they didn't offer the buybacks then everyone would just take the second insurance to cover their deductables and copays. And you can have two insurances, many people who have two jobs have two insurances. The insurance companies just have to determine which one is primary and which one is secondary.

So is this why Ed Wuillermin lied to the Republicans, because Anthony accepted the pay he was entitled to?

__________________
Anonymous

Date:
Permalink   
 

Anonymous wrote:

Admin wrote:

Yes you can have two insurance policies on the same thing. Many people have more than one life insurance policy. Many people have more than one health insurance policy. It is not double dipping, it is extra coverage. If you have one health insurance policy where you work you can buy extra coverage for yourself, or if you take on a second job you can accept the coverage from the second job in addition to your first. It is part of the compensation you receive for working for the second company. Buyouts are down in the private sector all the time because it can save the second company money. In this case the individual took the buyout to save the town money but still provide for his family. No matter how hard you try, you can't make something wrong out of this. If the other individuals could afford to turn both options down we can all commend them for it but it doesn't make the other individuals who chose option #2 wrong. It is their choice, not yours!

In the private sector if you don't want the insurance, companies do not give you a bonus.  In fact, most of the time people have to pay for part of their insurance costs out of their paycheck.  

Whenever you get life insurance from an employer, one of the questions asked on the application form is if you or your family have other insurance.  No, you cannot "double dip" and get reimbursed twice for the same item. 

If Anthony Falcone were concerned about saving money, considering he already had State health insurance, why not do what the HF people did and give up the buyout?

Saving over $10,000 per councilperson allows that money to be used on other areas of the budget and to keep taxes down.  How does Falcone propose to cut costs... he has to start somewhere... this is an easy one.  He already has insurance so he wasn't really giving anything important up.

As far as the debt being lowered this year, the figures I qoute came from the same company that the Mayor qoutes for last years figures. They DID factor in the debt payments for this year and the end result, according to Bowman & Co., is that the debt at the end of this year will be the same as at the end of 2005.

I think we agree here, HF is lowering the debt.  Yes, HF would like to lower it even faster, but that would require even deeper spending cuts.  Would you support those?

You keep saying that the debt did not result from the town hall, well fill us all in, what was the debt from.

As Anthony Falcone knows, there were hundreds of thousands of dollars bonded under terms like "various items."  The shame is that all that money was spent with such poor organization.

No matter what caused our debt to be this high, we can not continue in this direction. We need to start paying down the debt and we have to stop the current borrow and spend tactics of HF. You can not justify bonding $4,700 for fire equipment. You can not justify bonding $11,500 for airport improvements. You can not justify bonding $29,000 for lawn equipment. We will be paying for these things for 13 or more years. We have to start planning for the future and planning for these purchases. We need to cut up the credit cards and start being responsible adults.
Ammirato, Falcone and Ripa recognize this and will work together as a team on council to put Hammonton back in the right direction.

The way to reduce debt is to to exactly what HF is doing.... reducing costs.  However, if everyone fights and says "don't stop spending on my favorite item" then there is no way to save money.

Sure, it is nice for Anthony Falcone to get money from the town.  It will be nice for Robin and Mike's pocketbook to also get money if they are elected.  But they have to look at the policy HF set for the past two years, be responsible adults as you say,  and realize that they have to waive their right to that money to help set an example of how important it is to save money.







The vast majority of private section companies don't pay 100% of an employee's health care. The employee is required to pay for at least some of the health care with payroll deductions. Thus, private sectior companies don't have to do benefit buybacks.... if the employee doesn't want the insurance, they certainly don't want to pay for 20-50% of it out of their paycheck.

__________________
Admin


Status: Offline
Posts: 1241
Date:
Permalink   
 

Some people do pay for the insurance if they feel it is to their benefit to do so. Others take the buyout. There are still a lot of companies that pay 100% of the insurance. Most of them do it for the employee only and the employee has to kick in for family coverage.

-- Edited by Admin at 18:49, 2007-10-14

__________________
«First  <  1 2 | Page of 2  sorted by
 
Quick Reply

Please log in to post quick replies.
Hammonton Blog -> Hammonton Democrats Blog -> Why did Ed Wuillermin put unnecessary pressure on the Republicans?
Tweet this page Post to Digg Post to Del.icio.us


Create your own FREE Forum
Report Abuse 		Powered by ActiveBoard