Here are some excerpts from an article in the Wall Street Journal:
State, Local Tax Revenues Decline 7%
State and local tax revenues fell 7% in the third quarter of 2009 from a year ago, the Census Bureau said in a report underscoring how the economic downturn is stressing government collections.
"We expect continued weakness well into 2010 if not further," said Lucy Dadayan, an analyst at the Rockefeller Institute of Government at the State University of New York.
Property taxes increased 3.6% in the third quarter compared with a year ago. But as property assessments catch up with falling residential and commercial real-estate values, property-tax revenues are expected to be weak. That will have a particularly severe impact on local governments, which fund much of their operations from property taxes.
"At minimum, cities will be working through the catastrophic drops in revenue for the next 18 months to two years," said Mark Muro of the Brookings Institution's Metropolitan Policy Program.
This article indicates a reduction in property taxes for local governments.
Hammonton's situation is complicated by the denial of grants to the Canoe Club, expenses that the Stockton deal will generate, loss of one time revenue from the local school district, increased interest expenses on debt, and cost overuns on several projects recently completed by the town.
As indicated from the recent snow storm our town services and staff are woefully underfunded. An uptick in crime recently and the failure to replace several police officers we lost this year highlight our failure and inability to properly fund and staff our local law enforcement.
Even though there are signs of a recovery, local government revenues tend to lag behind economic recovery due because of the time in takes for collection of revenue from improved conditions.
What are your suggestions for the new administration?
-- Edited by Admin on Tuesday 5th of January 2010 10:33:37 AM
Get ready ....things are only going to get worse....don't worry if it snows again it will be days before you see a plow and then they will blame everyone else. Steve and company will find a way to fund the town via the school and his buddies on the school board. I also think they will continue to lay off town employees....but what about current law suits with the ones they fired last year????The new motto for this administration will be" lets kick the can a little further down the road" ...meaning they will do nothing and you will not get any services for what you do pay...its all good...keep thinking that ...maybe its just a bad dream.
Get ready ....things are only going to get worse....don't worry if it snows again it will be days before you see a plow and then they will blame everyone else. Steve and company will find a way to fund the town via the school and his buddies on the school board. I also think they will continue to lay off town employees....but what about current law suits with the ones they fired last year????The new motto for this administration will be" lets kick the can a little further down the road" ...meaning they will do nothing and you will not get any services for what you do pay...its all good...keep thinking that ...maybe its just a bad dream.
Who filed lawsuits for getting fired? The town never said anything about that???
It's obvious HF doesn't know how to manage our money. While other towns raised property taxes they discontinued all public projects. We didn't raise taxes and continued with public projects.... doesn't make sense does it? Yes we needed at new town hall but not where it is because of no parking and not for 12 million dollars and it's falling down. We didn't need to spend money downtown it's like dumping money into a bankrupt company - no return. The mistake at the lake was a huge waste of money I heard they are still trying to get a permit from the pinelands to tear down the old building that has been torn down almost a year ago?!$?! No one used that building it's sitting idol. When times are bad you cut the wasteful spending not the services. We can't even afford to buy salt for the roads or pay employees to plow them which is a huge safety issue if they care about the taxpayers so much. What an f***ed up mess. Nice job HF I just want to know one thing how are you making so much money when the town is losing so much money???????
Get ready ....things are only going to get worse....don't worry if it snows again it will be days before you see a plow and then they will blame everyone else. Steve and company will find a way to fund the town via the school and his buddies on the school board. I also think they will continue to lay off town employees....but what about current law suits with the ones they fired last year????The new motto for this administration will be" lets kick the can a little further down the road" ...meaning they will do nothing and you will not get any services for what you do pay...its all good...keep thinking that ...maybe its just a bad dream.
Who filed lawsuits for getting fired? The town never said anything about that???
How much are these lawsuits going to cost the town? You think they would have learned after going after the Chief.
What I don't understand is why are our elected officials collecting a salary from the taxpayers when they are all very wealthy? Former Governor Corzine refused to take a salary or health care benefits while in office - that was the right thing to do. These people wanted to be on council. There are so many fridge benefits to being on council when you own a business, own rental properties or properties downtown. Ex: the taxpayers paid for downtown renovations to properties owned by the former mayor and his contributors. The taxpayers paid to run sewer to the bowling alley and to the businesses of the mayor his family and his contributors. Then there is that issue of the dirt at the airport. We are talking about millions of dollars that we paid out that didn't benefit us not one iota. Yet they keep telling us to volunteer! Why should we volunteer when they don't volunteer or give anything. Everything the taxpayer receives, we pay for, we get nothing for free!
What I don't understand is why are our elected officials collecting a salary from the taxpayers when they are all very wealthy? Former Governor Corzine refused to take a salary or health care benefits while in office - that was the right thing to do. These people wanted to be on council. There are so many fridge benefits to being on council when you own a business, own rental properties or properties downtown. Ex: the taxpayers paid for downtown renovations to properties owned by the former mayor and his contributors. The taxpayers paid to run sewer to the bowling alley and to the businesses of the mayor his family and his contributors. Then there is that issue of the dirt at the airport. We are talking about millions of dollars that we paid out that didn't benefit us not one iota. Yet they keep telling us to volunteer! Why should we volunteer when they don't volunteer or give anything. Everything the taxpayer receives, we pay for, we get nothing for free!
Yea Right, Jon Corzine really did New Jersey a favor when he bankrupted and ruined out state finances. The WIZARD of WALL STREET is a thief who stole our tax money and forced alot of business (who pay the bills) to close and leave the state.
GOOD BYE to CORZINE ......he should move back to Illinois when he came from.....Good riddance!!!!!
What I don't understand is why are our elected officials collecting a salary from the taxpayers when they are all very wealthy? Former Governor Corzine refused to take a salary or health care benefits while in office - that was the right thing to do. These people wanted to be on council. There are so many fridge benefits to being on council when you own a business, own rental properties or properties downtown. Ex: the taxpayers paid for downtown renovations to properties owned by the former mayor and his contributors. The taxpayers paid to run sewer to the bowling alley and to the businesses of the mayor his family and his contributors. Then there is that issue of the dirt at the airport. We are talking about millions of dollars that we paid out that didn't benefit us not one iota. Yet they keep telling us to volunteer! Why should we volunteer when they don't volunteer or give anything. Everything the taxpayer receives, we pay for, we get nothing for free!
Yea Right, Jon Corzine really did New Jersey a favor when he bankrupted and ruined out state finances. The WIZARD of WALL STREET is a thief who stole our tax money and forced alot of business (who pay the bills) to close and leave the state.
GOOD BYE to CORZINE ......he should move back to Illinois when he came from.....Good riddance!!!!!
It seems as though HF is following in his footsteps. HF is bankrupting our town, they are ruining out towns finances with all the borrowing and spending. If you listen to these blog entries it seems as though a HF mayor has stole dirt from the airport and they forced business downtown to close, Tappers, Blueberry factory, Nemia's, ice cream place, Baskets by Inferrera's. Hopefully we will be saying good-bye to HF soon and they will go back to new york and where ever else they came from.
It would be interesting to see what the people in this town would do if the terrorists gave them a bag of veggies. I wonder would they blow themselves up??? Probably. Scary very scary!
Big Steve posted on the Town Website that Hammonton is better positioned in this economic crisis. Ha!
With 10 vacant storefronts down-town, an empty buildings where Patriot Windows, the old NJM and Kessler. How about all of those commercial properties that need renters. Let's not forget the crumbling neighborhoods like 2nd Street. The only problem is that some of the landlords include local judicial appointees if you know what I mean.
Hammonton's new motto: What the inner circle makes, the rest of the fools have to take!!!
Big Steve posted on the Town Website that Hammonton is better positioned in this economic crisis. Ha!
With 10 vacant storefronts down-town, an empty buildings where Patriot Windows, the old NJM and Kessler. How about all of those commercial properties that need renters. Let's not forget the crumbling neighborhoods like 2nd Street. The only problem is that some of the landlords include local judicial appointees if you know what I mean.
Hammonton's new motto: What the inner circle makes, the rest of the fools have to take!!!
You can talk all you want you can even show people what you are talking about and prove it but they still won't believe you. Hammonton people are so clueless they probably don't even know that Kessler hospital has closed and don't care as long as their taxes don't increase.
Just getting around to reading the Hammonton News. I can't believe the washed up puppet master allowed the mayor to give him two appointments. How stupid can they be...this opens him up for all kinds of harassment and ridicule. This is like opening up a can of worms. Your stupidity will be your demise.
Hamilton Township laid off four policemen yesterday.
So how many do you think Hammonton is going to lay off? My bet 3 immediately and 2 more just before the migrant workers start flocking in. Why because they are stupid.
This is what happens when taxpayers have to pay 4 million dollars to bring Stockton to Hammonton and who will it benefit.... not the taxpayers! They need to stop wasting money and use the public schools to hold classes at night like all other towns do.
How could town council suggest making cuts to the police when the town is in such fine financial shape. Didn't we get some special rating from Standard and Poor, like a B- or something? Don't we still have a surplus. We have two officers in the school whose salaries are paid for by the school, an officer left, an officer retired, and another officer passed away. They are saving on five salaries right there.
The town employees are facing potential 10 furlough days this year and the ground work has been laid to lay off some police. Is there any truth to these rumors?
Try making an OPRA request for that info and see how far that gets you! They won't tell you what THEY don't want you to know. Not until THEY'RE ALL out office will we know the truth. Ask any councilperson and they'll just walk away from you about the true costs. Ask anyone who wore a 5.9 at Central & Vine hat as well?
Have we all forgotten, the town has $60,000 that the Chief (at the moment) Frank Ingemi promised to give the town when he sued them and won he said he would NEVER keep that money, and let's face it if he gave to the town it would be all over The Hammonton News with his picture.(right Pat?) That $60,000 is clear the town paid for legal fees and that comes from the Chief's or Mr. Ingemi's attorney. Also if Ingemi reaches in his pocket like he said he was going to not to let the unpaid nurses walk out of Kessler we should have a nice chunk, and let's not forget Haggerty who the chief was going to pay all his bills if he did not get disability. So just from 1 Hammontonian that has got to be over$100,000.00 not as much as his salary but still a good chunk.The lesson, we all hear you when you talk and we all see you when you don't do.