Home News Tribune Online 02/23/06
It was amazing how during the fall elections the Democrats flaunted how much
of our tax dollars they were saving us in Middlesex County. They wasted no
time in raising the tax levy after they won. The election is over, and they
still are trying to pull the wool over taxpayers' eyes.
The county's open-space fund is a tax no matter how you slice it, and we are
all going to pay for it — in addition to the tax levy.
The Halper family does not want to sell its farm in Piscataway; they are
willing to sell their development rights, provided they can stay on their
land, and they will settle for a lot less than what Piscataway is offering to
buy the land. They have presented that as a viable alternative to Piscataway
Mayor Brian Wahler.
But Wahler adamantly refuses to consider any alternatives. Nothing will stop
him, no matter how much it costs all of us.
In 36 years, no one could find the money in Piscataway to fix a faulty sound
system that made it difficult for Township Council audiences to hear the
responses of their elected officials, but the county freeholders have found
millions for a hostile takeover of a farm.
If Piscataway didn't have the money for needed upgrades, why couldn't the
freeholders have found the money for repairs? Renovations could have been made
to the council chambers and then paid back, using the county money as a
short-term loan.
That's pretty much what our freeholders are doing with the open-space fund.
Piscataway doesn't have the money to buy the Halper farm, so the freeholders
are giving it the money to take it. The only difference is, instead of
Piscataway paying back the money, the residents of Middlesex County will be
saddled with replenishing the open-space fund.
Piscataway officials were surprised when a judge ruled that $18 million is the
going rate for purchase of the Halper property. Wahler now needs his
father-in-law, Freeholder Director David Crabiel, to bail him out to save
face.
Could it be there were more books about Niccolo Machiavelli in Piscataway than
anywhere else in Middlesex County?
Joe Sinagra