HAMMONTON BLOG

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Hammonton First sweeps

Date: 09:34 PM Nov 6, 2007

The people who voted HF in tonight are probably the same people who voted yes for the school referendum in'99. We all know how that turned out. Just wait until the bill comes to your house and mine for the new town hall. I guess some people in this town will never learn. Hey why did Gerolamo Barberio have to post $500 bail? Does anybody out there know? He's changed his name. He's having to post bail on an outstanding warrent. What else is he hiding?

Date: 09:38 PM Nov 6, 2007

wow three in a row no tax increase. all three seats in a two two one landslide. wow wow wow. and yet you still bash . just say good job guys and lead on. also they did not post any of your clubs dirty laundry . let's keep it clean and enjoy the tax break the dems and reps have taxed me for the 50 years i have been alive. lead on hf , good job and good luck to all .

Date: 09:54 PM Nov 6, 2007

Anonymous wrote:

wow three in a row no tax increase. all three seats in a two two one landslide. wow wow wow. and yet you still bash . just say good job guys and lead on. also they did not post any of your clubs dirty laundry . let's keep it clean and enjoy the tax break the dems and reps have taxed me for the 50 years i have been alive. lead on hf , good job and good luck to all .

Oh you have no idea what you're in for. Enjoy it bro.

Date: 10:05 PM Nov 6, 2007

Anonymous wrote:

wow three in a row no tax increase. all three seats in a two two one landslide. wow wow wow. and yet you still bash . just say good job guys and lead on. also they did not post any of your clubs dirty laundry . let's keep it clean and enjoy the tax break the dems and reps have taxed me for the 50 years i have been alive. lead on hf , good job and good luck to all .

The idea, if you want to be considered worthy of representing the people in this town, is not to have any dirty laundry to post. The people who need the good luck are those of us who never voted for HF in the first place.

Date: 01:15 PM Nov 7, 2007

Does the term landslide or mandate mean anything to you?? Take a lesson from what happended this year. Do not try to turn this around and bash Hammonton First. If you notice the people of the town spoke LOUDLY and said they do not like the behavior and demeanor of the dems or reps. Hammonton First has come forward with an honest campaign. Please review EVERY ad placed in the papers. NOT ONE negative item. Hammmonton First does not look to degrade or intimidate anyone. Reps and Dems need to rethink who they have in their leadership. They need bright new thinkers who are willing to look outside politics as usual and work with people.

Look at the improvements in our town. Progress like this has not happened for years, if ever. Get off of your nastiness and run on a solid platform which lists issues and results and stop the backroom politics and people will respect you.

Hammonton First and its' supporters love this town and work hard to improve everyone's quality of life. We should count ourselves lucky that we have two years with such great people as Ed, Jerry and Tracy.

Date: 02:19 PM Nov 7, 2007

Anonymous wrote:

Does the term landslide or mandate mean anything to you?? Take a lesson from what happended this year. Do not try to turn this around and bash Hammonton First. If you notice the people of the town spoke LOUDLY and said they do not like the behavior and demeanor of the dems or reps. Hammonton First has come forward with an honest campaign. Please review EVERY ad placed in the papers. NOT ONE negative item. Hammmonton First does not look to degrade or intimidate anyone. Reps and Dems need to rethink who they have in their leadership. They need bright new thinkers who are willing to look outside politics as usual and work with people.

Look at the improvements in our town. Progress like this has not happened for years, if ever. Get off of your nastiness and run on a solid platform which lists issues and results and stop the backroom politics and people will respect you.

Hammonton First and its' supporters love this town and work hard to improve everyone's quality of life. We should count ourselves lucky that we have two years with such great people as Ed, Jerry and Tracy.

I'd type something here but I'm busy throwing up in my keyboard. Bend over because it's about to be shoved up our coolies.

Date: 02:47 PM Nov 7, 2007

well said and very very true hf worked their buts off and ran a solid honest campaign . i can't wait to see the new town hall and zero tax increase . the reps and dems need to go to school thier campaigns over the last three years sucked. great job to hf .

Date: 11:53 PM Nov 7, 2007

well said and very very true hf worked their buts off and ran a solid honest campaign . i can't wait to see the new town hall and zero tax increase . the reps and dems need to go to school thier campaigns over the last three years sucked. great job to hf .
Well....I do agree on the campaign part. Well done. It is amazing what ownership of the media and an unlimited budget can bring. I am just real upset that the Hammonton taxpayers will eventually have to pay, no matter how long the Firsters try to delay it, for this embarassing town hall. I often wonder how many generations of Hammontonians will have to bear the burden of being millions of dollars under budget for this project? I am afraid of the tax burden my children will have to pay after years of neglect by Hammonton First. It really is a shame. For years now, the Hammonton Dems have offered the brightest candidates, and for years they have been shut out by the Hammonton First Corporation.

It all just goes to show that the votes follow the money, but as long as the money influences the votes, the working class will never stand a chance.

I think its time to sell the house in Hammonton......I can move to any sourunding county and get more house for my money and pay less taxes.....I guess that is because they are not wasting millions of dollars for the benefit of a few rich landowners!!!!

Date: 12:07 AM Nov 8, 2007

I agree.....time to go......

Nowhere in the world do the rich business owners get new sidewalks while the rest of the town gets served with sidewalk violations.

Nowhere in the world do the rich business owners get free water and sewer lines while the working class needs to pay for this on their own.

Nowhere in the world does the hardworking, honest police chief get taken to court for no reason, while the taxpayers foot the bill of a personal vendetta.

Nowhere in the world does a town have officials, namely the mayor, contract the illegal removal of asbestos to his cousin and get away with it.

Nowhere in the world is it ok for the mayor's brother to steal from the town airport and get away with it.

I feel that I am living in the real life "Dukes of Hazzard" except it should be called the "Donios of Hammonton".

It is am embarrassment to the entire legal system of this great state and country of ours. I hope justice is served real soon!!!!!

Date: 02:02 AM Nov 8, 2007

Anonymous wrote:

well said and very very true hf worked their buts off and ran a solid honest campaign . i can't wait to see the new town hall and zero tax increase . the reps and dems need to go to school thier campaigns over the last three years sucked. great job to hf .

Oh yeah real honest. they lied their asses off. jerry barberio a lifelong resident? taking credit for NJM? taking credit for Central Ave.? telling people that republicans wanted to shut down boyer ave.?

get real, your campaign was a terrible misuse of town property(tv station).

oh, and your bitch boy candidates last year got sucker punched by the republicans.

good job, you won this year. last year you got f'in killed. next year it will be the same thing again.

sore winners. you got to love 'em!

Date: 07:53 AM Nov 8, 2007

While 1,900 or so people are celebrating Hammonton First Corporation's victory, 10,000+ more will be suffering The Town of Hammonton's defeat this election. We'll just see how much more of our taxpayer money will get spent to make our town look like Haddonfield as Hammonton First wants while Hammoton taxpayers don't want uncontrolled growth. I've been to Haddonfield, it sucks. All it has is antique and art junk.

Date: 08:57 AM Nov 8, 2007

They need not worry. No is going to want to live here or shop here because the taxes are going to shoot to the moon and you won't have enough police officers to keep the residents safe. And no one wants to even admit they voted for Hammonton First. If everyone I spoke with actually voted the way they said they did there would be no more Hammonton First. Disgusting!

Date: 10:06 AM Nov 8, 2007

sore winners wow how about a sore loser , or just a loser. hf won and did a good job and if you call 12 votes last year geting your ass kicked. wow .
as for leaving hammonton i would not the hammonton of the future looks bright for us and our children. so go and move to a lesser town. that's smart. if you can buy more home for your money that tells you something. it good in hammonton. as far as the rest of the lies. Please give me one just one fact that says we will pay in the future name one thing!!! you can't so have fun moving I be right here at home in hammonton.

Date: 11:09 AM Nov 8, 2007

Anonymous wrote:

sore winners wow how about a sore loser , or just a loser. hf won and did a good job and if you call 12 votes last year geting your ass kicked. wow .
as for leaving hammonton i would not the hammonton of the future looks bright for us and our children. so go and move to a lesser town. that's smart. if you can buy more home for your money that tells you something. it good in hammonton. as far as the rest of the lies. Please give me one just one fact that says we will pay in the future name one thing!!! you can't so have fun moving I be right here at home in hammonton.

I'm worried that we banked on spending so much tax dollars in our downtown and built our town hall on the cheap. We need to bring down the debt and stop borrowing so much. Cutting services without concern is not the solution.

Date: 11:10 AM Nov 8, 2007

Face it your stuck here. The real estate market stinks and the realtors want their fair share of the big ticket homes so those homes in older established neighborhoods aren't going to sell. Make the best of it. Ask questions voice your displeasure and don't back down to Hammonton First or any other political party when you don't agree with them. AND NEXT YEAR ACTUALLY GO OUT AND VOTE. YOU DON'T HAVE THE RIGHT TO CRY IF YOU DIDN'T VOTE IN THIS YEARS ELECTION!

Date: 03:12 PM Nov 8, 2007

The issue that the Dems and Reps both need to understand is that you cannot run a campaign by simply bashing HF. That type of negative campaigning drives their supporters to go over the line with their comments in the blogs, on the street and in letters to the editor.

Look at the posts attacking HF before the election and now in the post-mortem. On the other blog a posters even wrote that the voters who elected HF are losers, idiots and weird along with implying they are only qualified to clean bathrooms. That kind of bashing does not make people want to vote for you.

The reality is that the negativity from the blogs, in the editorials and on the street actually push MORE people to vote for HF. It is natural for people to cringe at such negative comments.

Are all Dems and Reps the problem? Absolutely not. Not even close. We are talking about a minority of their parties. A vocal minority, but one that is unfortunately VERY vocal. What is worse is this minority is encouraged by many of their partys leadership.

Until the Dems and Reps realize that they need to run positive campaigns they will be viewed as outsiders bashing all of Hammonton, not just Hammonton First.

The Dems and Reps need to try to adopt what has been rule 1 at HF. You detail what you want to accomplish if elected and you simply ignore the opposition. The Hammonton voters have shown that bashing simply hurts the party doing the bashing.

This is a great town. There is great progress. And like anything else, things can become even better. People want to bash Hammonton and say we cannot be as good as other towns such as Haddonfield? They are wrong. We can be even BETTER than those towns. This town can be the greatest, most wonderful town in America.

Date: 08:13 PM Nov 8, 2007

Anonymous wrote:
as far as the rest of the lies. Please give me one just one fact that says we will pay in the future name one thing!!! you can't so have fun moving I be right here at home in hammonton.

Name one thing? How about I name three?

-5.9 million dollar bond for Town Hall
-2 million dollar bond for "various improvements"
-5 million dollar bond for Boyer Ave.

All three of these bonds have been authorized. 7.9 million dollars of those bonds has already been appropriated. NONE OF THESE BONDS HAVE BEEN SOLD YET.

That means we will owe at least 7.9 million dollars this year. The town has is just about done. We have to pay for it. The improvement money was spent, we have to pay for it. The bonds have to be sold, and you have to pay them back.

But don't worry, big time Jerry Barberio and gang have it all figured out.

You're a moron.

Date: 05:02 PM Nov 9, 2007

can you hear a pin drop on the internet. you did on tuesday 11-6-2007 at about 8:45 pm .
don't woory it's all good. hf all the way.
who is the fool who thinks you can do all these projects without bonding money. and not selling the bonds yet saves hammonton big money every time the interest rate drops hammonton saves money. dummy. bonding is ok as long as you have a asset that goes with it ( I.E. town hall boyer ave. ) under your plan we would do a little at a time. and not build a new town hall. but earler you say that we have to get the employees out of the current town hall. stop the bashing and lies. it does not work. enjoy the three years without a tax increase and instead of a insult how about say thank youto hf. it's all good.

Date: 05:27 PM Nov 9, 2007

Anonymous wrote:

can you hear a pin drop on the internet. you did on tuesday 11-6-2007 at about 8:45 pm .
don't woory it's all good. hf all the way.
who is the fool who thinks you can do all these projects without bonding money. and not selling the bonds yet saves hammonton big money every time the interest rate drops hammonton saves money. dummy. bonding is ok as long as you have a asset that goes with it ( I.E. town hall boyer ave. ) under your plan we would do a little at a time. and not build a new town hall. but earler you say that we have to get the employees out of the current town hall. stop the bashing and lies. it does not work. enjoy the three years without a tax increase and instead of a insult how about say thank youto hf. it's all good.

You say that you are a party of Democrats, Indpendents and Republicans but you don't give credit to the Democrats, Indpendents or Republicans at all. You made it seem as only the Hammonton First Corporation did it.

Date: 08:37 PM Nov 9, 2007

Anonymous wrote:

can you hear a pin drop on the internet. you did on tuesday 11-6-2007 at about 8:45 pm .
don't woory it's all good. hf all the way.
who is the fool who thinks you can do all these projects without bonding money. and not selling the bonds yet saves hammonton big money every time the interest rate drops hammonton saves money. dummy. bonding is ok as long as you have a asset that goes with it ( I.E. town hall boyer ave. ) under your plan we would do a little at a time. and not build a new town hall. but earler you say that we have to get the employees out of the current town hall. stop the bashing and lies. it does not work. enjoy the three years without a tax increase and instead of a insult how about say thank youto hf. it's all good.

the more you talk the more of an ignoramus you prove yourself to be. you obviously know nothing of finance. we'll mark you down as someone from the fiscal oversight committee then.

try to get this through your thick skull: its not about interest rate levels. and do you think interest rates only go down? are you the type of guy who waits till stocks have already hit their top to sell, or already bottomed out and come back up to buy? you buy and sell on the trend you amazing idiot. you don't count burden the whole town on speculation.

furthermore, wether we save a quarter point or not, you miss the point. when we bond, regardless of interest rates, we will owe over 10 million dollars. we have to pay that back. maybe your cult, oops, your party, can just steal more money from water and sewer to pay for you moronic town hall which 99% of the town never uses.

just try to steal the 2.5 million dollars rocky got for the water tower to pay for half of town hall. you will have a revolt in this town. you don't get to rob peter to pay paul, sonny boy.

now go back and bow at the feets of fatty and his brother.

Date: 09:56 AM Nov 10, 2007

It's the George Bush method of government.
Spend, spend, spend, borrow, borrow, borrow, and kill all your enemies.

The scary part is what are we going to do in a few years???? Hammonton will have a record deficit, inadequate town hall with inadequate parking, an inadequate police force, an under-budgeted fire department, and law-breaking town leaders. What will we do when this imaginary Hammonton First "bubble" bursts???

By then, I guess it wouldn't matter, because Hammonton First will raped and pilliaged everything they could from the taxpayer, and they will move on to living like kings with their new sidewalks, water & sewer lines, and improved downtown property values, while the rest of Hammonton struggles to make ends meet.

Why don't the firsters who trash this page address the issues, instead of bashing?????

Firsters, how are you going to pay for a town hall that is grossly under budgeted?
Firsters, how can you live with yourselves after you tried to ruin the life and career of an honorable police chief?
Firsters, how can you live with yourselves knowing that your children will have to pay for this record deficit you created?
Firsters, how can you live with yourselves knowing that you stole taxpayer dollars by illegally hiring family who is not licensed to do such work?

Firsters, how can you live with yourselves knowing that you are building a town hall that is over-budget and too small????

Firsters, how can you live with yourselves knowing that you lied to all of Hammonton promising a town hall complete with furniture and all fixtures, and a community center by the lake for $4.9 million?

How many millions of dollars over-budget will this project cost at the expense of hardworking Hammonton taxpayers???????

Date: 03:27 PM Nov 10, 2007

Anonymous wrote:
can you hear a pin drop on the internet. you did on tuesday 11-6-2007 at about 8:45 pm .
don't woory it's all good. hf all the way.
who is the fool who thinks you can do all these projects without bonding money. and not selling the bonds yet saves hammonton big money every time the interest rate drops hammonton saves money. dummy. bonding is ok as long as you have a asset that goes with it ( I.E. town hall boyer ave. ) under your plan we would do a little at a time. and not build a new town hall. but earler you say that we have to get the employees out of the current town hall. stop the bashing and lies. it does not work. enjoy the three years without a tax increase and instead of a insult how about say thank youto hf. it's all good.

Actually, the $5.9M for the town hall is already included in the overall $18M debt. As soon as that money was appropriated via vote, it was required to be included in the town's debt statement. You can get that at town hall if you'd like.

The final bond itself for the $5.9M cannot be sold yet. The reason is what you touched upon. Municipal bond buyers require an asset as collateral for the bond. So once the town hall is completed, the bonds can be sold.

Admin · Status: Offline

You keep saying that the Town Hall bond is already included in the debt, that is not true. You keep saying go to the town hall and find out, WE DID!!! Please, please, please go to town hall and check this out yourself. Boyer Avenue is not in there yet either, only about $80,000.

And also, please do not accuse me of bashing now. I am only bringing out the facts so that we can all be on the same page.

-- Edited by Admin at 18:17, 2007-11-10

Date: 10:08 AM Nov 11, 2007

holly s good god almighty thank god you did not win. wow if you want a free lesson on bonding and interest rates call frank zuber. i will not give you one. but dummy when you are in business it is smart to ride out a trend and take advantage of lower rates. you disagree. ? lastly under the dems and reps we bonded. HF froze alot of old used bonds . that help ut overall. just sit back and relax your taxes are going down.

Date: 10:12 AM Nov 11, 2007

so i you say not to build a new town hall becuse 99 % of the people never use it. what about the employees that you stick up for. its ok for the to work in that basement fill of mold and water. shame on you dems shame on you....

Date: 12:14 PM Nov 11, 2007

Anonymous wrote:

holly s good god almighty thank god you did not win. wow if you want a free lesson on bonding and interest rates call frank zuber. i will not give you one. but dummy when you are in business it is smart to ride out a trend and take advantage of lower rates. you disagree. ? lastly under the dems and reps we bonded. HF froze alot of old used bonds . that help ut overall. just sit back and relax your taxes are going down.

I'll trust the Fed Chair before your sorry logic. You've seen the lost rate drop for a long time, unless this country is really ****ed. And by the way, I suppose you nothing about bond ratings either, huh? Pray your precious fatty-elect and his sister soldier dont' get stuck floating bonds with junk status due to whatever market trends are out there....

Good luck jack-ss, the rest of us will continue to fight for our Town. Hurry up nd build your senior center on the Lake.

By the way, what did Jerome Barberio get arrested for anyway?

Date: 05:32 PM Nov 11, 2007

Anonymous wrote:
The issue that the Dems and Reps both need to understand is that you cannot run a campaign by simply bashing HF. That type of negative campaigning drives their supporters to go over the line with their comments in the blogs, on the street and in letters to the editor.

Look at the posts attacking HF before the election and now in the post-mortem. On the other blog a posters even wrote that the voters who elected HF are losers, idiots and weird along with implying they are only qualified to clean bathrooms. That kind of bashing does not make people want to vote for you.
The reality is that the negativity from the blogs, in the editorials and on the street actually push MORE people to vote for HF. It is natural for people to cringe at such negative comments.

Are all Dems and Reps the problem? Absolutely not. Not even close. We are talking about a minority of their parties. A vocal minority, but one that is unfortunately VERY vocal. What is worse is this minority is encouraged by many of their partys leadership.

Until the Dems and Reps realize that they need to run positive campaigns they will be viewed as outsiders bashing all of Hammonton, not just Hammonton First.
The Dems and Reps need to try to adopt what has been rule 1 at HF. You detail what you want to accomplish if elected and you simply ignore the opposition. The Hammonton voters have shown that bashing simply hurts the party doing the bashing.

This is a great town. There is great progress. And like anything else, things can become even better. People want to bash Hammonton and say we cannot be as good as other towns such as Haddonfield? They are wrong. We can be even BETTER than those towns. This town can be the greatest, most wonderful town in America.

Another year with no tax increase for the town is going to be great!

Admin · Status: Offline

Anonymous wrote:

holly s good god almighty thank god you did not win. wow if you want a free lesson on bonding and interest rates call frank zuber. i will not give you one. but dummy when you are in business it is smart to ride out a trend and take advantage of lower rates. you disagree. ? lastly under the dems and reps we bonded. HF froze alot of old used bonds . that help ut overall. just sit back and relax your taxes are going down.

I did call Frank Zuber. That is where the information came from.

Loyal Dem · Status: Offline

I am sorry but I am going to have to disagree with the person who says we should borrow just because borrowing is cheap. We should not be doing all of this borrowing. Period.

Now, interest payments will start crowd out our other operating expenses like the highway department and police department. I suspect the idea of privatizing the highway department will start up again.

By the way, grants also dry up. Councilman-elect Barberio promised us grant money for Boyer Ave and now we bonded for it. So as fun as Little Italy may be. Who says there will be grant money for it? Will we borrow for that too? More interest payments, less services.

I also would like to remind HF. They received 49% of the vote. 51% of the voters disagreed with them.

Date: 04:26 PM Nov 12, 2007

I did not say to borrow just becuase money is cheap. what i said was It is a good time to be borrowing. it is good that the town hall project came up while rates are low. that all. You say we should not be borrowing . so then you say that the employees should have stayed in the basement with the mold and the water. i thought you guys where the camps of the employees . shame on you.
I am however confussed did the 49% vote win yes it did. thtat is evident in our tax bills hf all the way.
hey did you see the brick at town hall , nice
hey did you see the new trash truck , nice
hey did you see the 5 new cop cars, nice
hey did you see the new rec fileds , nice
hey did you see all the employees raises , nice
hey did you see all the roads getting paved, nice
hey did you see all the happenings, nice
hey did you see your tax bill , nice

Loyal Dem · Status: Offline

Forgive my misinterpretation but you said "when you are in business it is smart to ride out a trend and take advantage of lower rates."

The problem with the Town Hall is that despite the hype, it will end up costing us more than anticipated and thus, causing excess borrowing/spending. Has demolition of the old town hall been included? Has new furniture costs been included?

The issue with the Boyer Ave is not necessarily new fields although I suspect that there were less expensive ways to go about this. It is that we are borrowing to purchase them, especially, after we were told there would be grant money. How are we sure that the same will not happen with Little Italy?

But my question is: with the increase in interest payments in 2008, how will HF pay for all the town's services and still not raise taxes? Is this another "Read my Lips, no new taxes" pledge? Will HF look at privatizing the Highway Department? Who will be laid off from the town?

I like things to look good and I like to see improvements. But the question is at what future costs are these improvements. Future costs were the cornerstone of the Democratic and GOP campaigns. To your credit, you (HF) effectively convinced the voters not to think about future costs. To use your own slogans, "It's all good" but "Will it still be all good in the next couple of years?"

Despite the outcome of the election, there will be future costs. So, Good Luck! These are your problems to solve. I hope you are right and I am wrong. Hammontonians including the 49% that voted for you, will have to pay for the solutions.

Date: 07:31 PM Nov 12, 2007

At the Boyer Avenue Rec fields there is a house for sale. Has anyone considered purchasing that house and using it for the rec fields as a consession stand, bathrooms, meeting space additional and much needed parking?

Date: 10:40 PM Nov 12, 2007

Anonymous wrote:

I did not say to borrow just becuase money is cheap. what i said was It is a good time to be borrowing. it is good that the town hall project came up while rates are low. that all. You say we should not be borrowing . so then you say that the employees should have stayed in the basement with the mold and the water. i thought you guys where the camps of the employees . shame on you.
I am however confussed did the 49% vote win yes it did. thtat is evident in our tax bills hf all the way.
hey did you see the brick at town hall , nice
hey did you see the new trash truck , nice
hey did you see the 5 new cop cars, nice
hey did you see the new rec fileds , nice
hey did you see all the employees raises , nice
hey did you see all the roads getting paved, nice
hey did you see all the happenings, nice
hey did you see your tax bill , nice

What's even nicer is that the debt is going down. The voters saw the massive debt that had been piled up before HF came to office and realized that they didn't want Anthony Falcone back in office to borrow more. It's all good.

Loyal Dem · Status: Offline

The debt estimates that HF cited did not include borrowing for the town hall and boyer ave. So debt actually went up. HF, don't worry about convincing us. You convinced the voters that it is not an issue.

However, instead of attacking Mr. Falcone, I wish someone from answer the question that I posed in an earlier post:

"But my question is: with the increase in interest payments in 2008, how will HF pay for all the town's services and still not raise taxes? Is this another "Read my Lips, no new taxes" pledge? Will HF look at privatizing the Highway Department? Who will be laid off from the town?"

Please do not respond with some personal attack or try to change the subject. The election is over. Tell us how you will not raise taxes in light of an increase in interest payments.

Date: 09:26 AM Nov 13, 2007

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I did not say to borrow just becuase money is cheap. what i said was It is a good time to be borrowing. it is good that the town hall project came up while rates are low. that all. You say we should not be borrowing . so then you say that the employees should have stayed in the basement with the mold and the water. i thought you guys where the camps of the employees . shame on you.
I am however confussed did the 49% vote win yes it did. thtat is evident in our tax bills hf all the way.
hey did you see the brick at town hall , nice
hey did you see the new trash truck , nice
hey did you see the 5 new cop cars, nice
hey did you see the new rec fileds , nice
hey did you see all the employees raises , nice
hey did you see all the roads getting paved, nice
hey did you see all the happenings, nice
hey did you see your tax bill , nice

What's even nicer is that the debt is going down. The voters saw the massive debt that had been piled up before HF came to office and realized that they didn't want Anthony Falcone back in office to borrow more. It's all good.

town auditor showed debt went down. dems & reps have been screaming for more spending for two years. watch them demand more spending this year. hammonton first keeps telling them no, town can't afford it. good thing we have hf in office.

Loyal Dem · Status: Offline

Odd, HF chastises GOP and Dems for being negative. Now, they are attacking us even though they won. I thought their policy was as follows:

"The Dems and Reps need to try to adopt what has been rule 1 at HF. You detail what you want to accomplish if elected and you simply ignore the opposition. The Hammonton voters have shown that bashing simply hurts the party doing the bashing"

It is amazing how the rules cease to apply when their is the cloak of anonymity.

Now, I go back to my original question:

"But my question is: with the increase in interest payments in 2008, how will HF pay for all the town's services and still not raise taxes? Is this another "Read my Lips, no new taxes" pledge? Will HF look at privatizing the Highway Department? Who will be laid off from the town?"

I hold HF in enough esteem to know you understand the question. You are just ignoring it. Electioneering is over. It is not about fitting your ideas on a bumber sticker. So what is going to happen? Again I pose the question:

"But my question is: with the increase in interest payments in 2008, how will HF pay for all the town's services and still not raise taxes? Is this another "Read my Lips, no new taxes" pledge? Will HF look at privatizing the Highway Department? Who will be laid off from the town?"

I challenge the next HF person to answer this question directly and specifically. No attacks, no changing the subject. Specific policy is the burden of winning an election.

Date: 11:06 AM Nov 13, 2007

Interesting statistics

Date: 11:54 AM Nov 13, 2007

RE: Hammonton First sweeps

Loyal Dem · Status: Offline

Thank you for the interesting statistics. We elected a council for the NEXT two years. Perhaps, it is all good (though I suspect there are people who dispute those statistics). The question is" Will it still be all good?"

You say," Tax increase in HF's plans for 2008 = 0" I am assuming this wasn't a last minute campaign promise. What is this plan? So ONCE AGAIN, I pose the $5.9 million dollar question:

"But my question is: with the increase in interest payments in 2008, how will HF pay for all the town's services and still not raise taxes? Is this another "Read my Lips, no new taxes" pledge? Will HF look at privatizing the Highway Department? Who will be laid off from the town?"

Stop with the sloganeering gimmicks. You are beginning to look ignorant. The voters were told the HF is the smartest, most business savvy and educated. So tell us what your plan to keep taxes at zero is. Post it on all of the blogs. Post it on your website. Put it in the papers. But let us know what we voted in.

Date: 09:26 PM Nov 13, 2007

Anonymous wrote:
I did not say to borrow just becuase money is cheap. what i said was It is a good time to be borrowing. it is good that the town hall project came up while rates are low. that all. You say we should not be borrowing . so then you say that the employees should have stayed in the basement with the mold and the water. i thought you guys where the camps of the employees . shame on you.
I am however confussed did the 49% vote win yes it did. thtat is evident in our tax bills hf all the way.
hey did you see the brick at town hall , nice
hey did you see the new trash truck , nice
hey did you see the 5 new cop cars, nice
hey did you see the new rec fileds , nice
hey did you see all the employees raises , nice
hey did you see all the roads getting paved, nice
hey did you see all the happenings, nice
hey did you see your tax bill , nice

Relax admin. It's all good. When you try to scare the employees and the bad things you are threatening don't come true, they start to wonder about you. Remember when you said the school plan to keep taxes down would never work?

Date: 11:33 AM Nov 14, 2007

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
I did not say to borrow just becuase money is cheap. what i said was It is a good time to be borrowing. it is good that the town hall project came up while rates are low. that all. You say we should not be borrowing . so then you say that the employees should have stayed in the basement with the mold and the water. i thought you guys where the camps of the employees . shame on you.
I am however confussed did the 49% vote win yes it did. thtat is evident in our tax bills hf all the way.
hey did you see the brick at town hall , nice
hey did you see the new trash truck , nice
hey did you see the 5 new cop cars, nice
hey did you see the new rec fileds , nice
hey did you see all the employees raises , nice
hey did you see all the roads getting paved, nice
hey did you see all the happenings, nice
hey did you see your tax bill , nice

Relax admin. It's all good. When you try to scare the employees and the bad things you are threatening don't come true, they start to wonder about you. Remember when you said the school plan to keep taxes down would never work?

The plan hasn't work. The school is in a defecit. We have been fooled. Theres an famous Presidential saying that says, fool me once, shame on shame on you. Fool me you cant get fooled again.

Admin · Status: Offline

Don't try and attack me now! I agree with the questions that Loyal Dem has raised, but I don't even know who it is. I asked the same questions before the election and you never answered them then, so I don't expect you to answer them now. But you need to know that I am not the only one asking these questions. Why won't you give anyone an answer?

Date: 07:34 AM Nov 15, 2007

Please explain what those HF clowns did to give a 0 tax increase at the school? It's all a lie, the board said several years ago that the lease payments would go down and that waterford would owe the district money. HF had nothing to do with any of that. Did HF get the extra 1 million for the district? The truth is NO...they have continued to lie.They truth is a zero tax increase at the school is as unrealistic as those zero tax increases on the town side.What will happen is the tax jump will be great on both side when it does happen.Not replacing worn tractors, police cars, bus's or everyday equipment, thinking that you are saving money is only putting off what truly needs to take place. When it snows and we have only broken-down trucks that won't get the job done. When your street wasn't swept for nearly an entire year that was great wasn,t it? A zero tax increase . The real question is at what cost? Only time will tell.Wise up read the true newspapers , as the county has lost a 34 million dollar tax fight in Atlantic City, this will inpact all communities, And HF did promise no new taxes, of course the landlord inspection fee is a new tax,so who will suffer this time when those dollars need to be made up. Will it be your family? Will it be your friends or will it be you?.How can tings stay the same when things are going up,they don,t have an answer for that.

Loyal Dem · Status: Offline

This is Loyal Dem. I am not Jim MaClane. I apologize that I was not able to respond to this yesterday.

HF, why did you not answer my questions but instead attack Jim? Once again you are waffling on my question.

You say that Town employees should consider my question of where cuts will be made is a threat against them. So I guess you are saying you will not cut any of the departments, will not lay anyone off and will not privatize any services. That is great. So let me rephrase the question:

"Since you will not cut services or employees, with an increase in interest payments looming and an increase in operational expenses due to various projects, what is your budget plan? How will you not raise taxes this year?"

Remember, you are the stewards for the next 2 years. We are not concerned about the past. How do you plan to fulfill your promises. Do not attack people (election is over and you won. You are the positive people). Do not change the subject. Do not mention previous accomplishments as great and as voter-approved as they may be. Once again, in the court of public opinion, I challenge you with this question:

Since you will not cut services or employees, with an increase in interest payments looming and an increase in operational expenses due to various projects, what is your budget plan? How will you not raise taxes this year?"

I challenge the Democrats and the Republicans to raise this question on every blog, at every meeting, in every paper. HF, let's see your plan.

Date: 12:25 PM Nov 15, 2007

I am not a hf'er but to answer your question. one way would be to use the increase in the ratable base. everyone has said that the ratable base went up a lot so that is one way. that's the way it is suposed to work. again i do not know so do not attack me.

Loyal Dem · Status: Offline

That would be my first idea. Ratable base. However, there are three ways to take advantage of that:

1) Sell existing homes/buildings. Perhaps, but the real estate market is slow.
2) Build more homes. However, real estate market is slow and more families increases the burden on the schools. Per-pupil expense is far greater than average tax assessment.
3) RE-ASSESSMENT. Re-assess all properties to current market value. OUCH!!

I realize that you are not a HF-er but you make want to ask 2 questions for the next HF'er that posts. First, my original question and here is a new question. Same rules apply. Don't muddy the waters, answer them directly with no attacks.

"Since you will not cut services or employees, with an increase in interest payments looming and an increase in operational expenses due to various projects, what is your budget plan? How will you not raise taxes this year?"

"Will you re-assess properties?"

To the previous poster, thanks for the comment. It was professional and serious. Not the usual HF slogans.

HF'er once again, my questions are:

"Since you will not cut services or employees, with an increase in interest payments looming and an increase in operational expenses due to various projects, what is your budget plan? How will you not raise taxes this year?"

"Will you re-assess properties?"

Date: 01:42 PM Nov 15, 2007

Anonymous wrote:

I am not a hf'er but to answer your question. one way would be to use the increase in the ratable base. everyone has said that the ratable base went up a lot so that is one way. that's the way it is suposed to work. again i do not know so do not attack me.

We need to stop the overdevelopment of homes. This will overburden our schools and of course lead to MORE TAXES. The schools are already in a defecit. We need more commercial ratables. We need to put our efforts outside of downtown.

Loyal Dem · Status: Offline

In case, HF forgot the questions while they were scratching their heads:

"Since you will not cut services or employees, with an increase in interest payments looming and an increase in operational expenses due to various projects, what is your budget plan? How will you not raise taxes this year?"

"Will you re-assess properties?"

Date: 09:48 AM Dec 8, 2007

Anonymous wrote:
Tax increase for town government in 2006 = 0
Tax increase for town government in 2007 = 0
Tax increase in HF's plans for 2008 = 0

School tax increase in 2007 = 0

Debt when HF came to office = almost $19M
Debt now = $570K less

Number of employees laid off by HF = 0.
Number of employees who got a raise = everybody.

It's all good!

This is great. If the town has zero tax increase next year and the school does also, it will be great for Hammonton! It truly is all good.

Admin · Status: Offline

Why won't you acknowledge that the figures you are using is for the end of 2006? The debt right now is $25 million, much higher

When will you start answering questions with facts about this years budget. The public that you serve would like to know what the plan is you used to make your promise of no tax increase this year. Or was it just an empty campaign promise to get elected?