Dear Editor:
As North Bergen homeowners begin to get their belated Christmas presents (read: their 2004 property tax bills) from Town Hall, we have three questions floating in our heads as we note the sizable increase in what we have to pay:
The Governor’s office has said that the reason the 2003 Homestead Rebate was half its usual amount was because the difference was used to offset school costs. So how then can the school portion of our bill have gone up ?
In this year’s election, the question on the ballot pertaining to raising the NB Board of Education budget was rejected by voters. How then can the school portion of our bill have gone up ?
This administration had made much ado about the recent upgrade in North Bergen’s credit rating. This upgrade is given when, among other things, there is surplus tax money held in this administration’s coffers. Would it have been that detrimental to have taken some of that surplus and used it to offset the rise in our property taxes ?
Brett Salo