June 29 Thoughts / Post Budget Hearing

The budget hearing on yesterday did not end until 4am this morning. I did not support the budget because of the detrimental cuts, primarily to senior programs, education, and health care services. It was a sad day for the State of New Jersey, especially for the City of Plainfield.

The Mayor and Council will now have to make some serious decisions in terms of what services the City will keep, and those they will eliminate because the public has sent a strong message that they will not accept any tax increases. In the next few days, I will share some of the cuts and their affects on the 22nd Legislative District.

I spoke to the Commissioner of Health, not only about the ambulance service but also about the future of the emergency facilities of Muhlenberg Hospital. Reason being is because at last week’s Solaris Community Meeting (which they have to hold once a year to keep the public abreast), they did not make a strong commitment as to whether or not they would keep the emergency facility open or if they were going to close it.

I think it is important that they share with the Plainfield medical community their plans for Muhlenberg’s future.

I read Jim Pivnichny’s blog complaining about the City looking at the idea of cutting the funding for the library. Do not be fooled! He would prefer to bring blame to the Mayor and Council regarding library cuts, even though he sat back and said nothing about the cuts made by Christie statewide to the library community.

Also, I am surprised when the public defeated the BOE budget, that although the Council could not change the bottom line, they could have reallocated funding to different line items. And since the children of the Plainfield school district depend on the library, I am confident that if the BOE would have spent more time figuring out how they could help close the financial gap in the City, rather than bring back attorneys that we have spent over $1 million in fees, our woes may have been averted. Secondly, we still have many high paying positions within the BOE budget, which could have been removed from the budget and used for servicing beneficial to the children.

Therefore, I believe that the New Democrats, Jim Pivnichny, and the Plainfield BOE have their own agenda, one that is not good government for the City of Plainfield. Not one time have they challenged the cuts Gov. Christie have made in this year’s budget and the impact they would have on the City of Plainfield. Instead, they have spent their time being critical, as well as calling me ‘unethical.’

Ps

There are approximately 8 million residents in New Jersey who will feel the impact of this budget. In both the Senate and General Assembly, EVERY Republican voted in support of this budget, fully knowing the negative ramifications of such budget cuts within their districts.

The only residents happy with this budget are the 16,000 millionaires who were spared this budget. So in the latter part of this year when people begin to receive their tax bills with increases, and fail to receive rebate checks, they will only begin to experience the suffering they must endure at the hands of Governor Chris Christie.