Dear Editor:
I read with interest an article in the North Bergen Reporter on October 15, page 3, entitled “Budget woes for Guttenberg”, in which the current administration blamed me, the former Mayor of Guttenberg, for their current financial woes.
The problem is with the costs related to being a customer of the North Hudson Regional Fire and Rescue, which the current administration hates to admit was wrong for Guttenberg, but since Mayor LaVilla was against the merger, they were for it.
And now that the chickens have come home to roost, this current administration is finding it hard to come up with the additional $1 million dollars to be a part of fire regionalization without raising taxes.
Well, when I was the mayor, I came up with the money–reluctantly–and had to raise taxes — reluctantly. Boys, get used to it because that problem will be around for the next 25 years.
Typically in Hudson County politics the rule of thumb is for the incoming administration to blame the previous administration for all their financial problems.
However, I broke that rule — and many others — when I took office in 1996. The previous administration had sent property taxes through the roof with an imposed townwide property revaluation.
Property taxes soared and it was dumped in my lap. Homeowners vowed to withhold paying their taxes.
What did I do? I did not sit on my hands and brood or point a finger at the previous administration.
Instead, I prepared letters urging property owners to pay their taxes for the betterment of the community; I made house calls and phone calls to reinforce the idea that paying taxes is their responsibility whether taxes go up or down.
That, coupled with frugal spending of taxpayers’ dollars, enabled me to give Guttenberg property owners its first tax cut in many, many years, and at a time when many towns in Hudson County were raising taxes.
I am proud to say that my administration lowered property taxes three years in a row.
Then came the North Hudson Regional Fire and Rescue, a merger of fire departments in Union City, Weehawken, North Bergen, West New York and Guttenberg.
The merger was a financial disaster du jour for Guttenberg taxpayers. I had urged my Town Council to withdraw from joining the North Hudson Regional Fire and Rescue for two reasons.
The first was that it was not in the best interest of Guttenberg since our fire department was functional and on the agenda was the purchase of a new hook and ladder.
Secondly, it would have cost the taxpayers of Guttenberg an additional $1 million a year to join NHRFR. That money, I reasoned, would have to come from an already strapped Guttenberg taxpayer in the form of a tax hike. While my critics accused me of waffling — including some in the current administration — it wasn’t until all of the data came in that I finally made my decision against joining the NHRFR.
At first, Guttenberg’s cost to join NHRFR was $2.3 million a year for 25 years. I objected. Then it was reduced to $1.5 million. Still no bargain for me since our town budget for our own fire department and volunteers was in the $500,000 a year bracket.
Still, the then Town Council, under pressure from politicians and critics, buckled under and voted to join NHRFR. Ironically, they never read the 25-year contract before voting to join fire regionalization.
And so was borne a huge deficit; and so was borne a huge financial problem that will be around for the next 25 years.
In closing, please let me state that serving as the Mayor of Guttenberg was an honor, and one that I’ll always cherish. I tried my best to the best of my ability, and although I could not please all of the people all of the time, I worked very hard to try and please most of the people most of the time.
Peter LaVilla
(former Mayor of Guttenberg now residing in North Bergen)