To the Editor:
I read the article in the Bayonne Community News regarding the Bayonne tax-card program. It puzzles me greatly that our elected officials could not come up with one plan to help the residents lower their property taxes other than this. I have come to the conclusion that this is not a good plan, just like many of the bright ideas our elected officials of this city have put out there for us to pay for over and over again.
It says in the article that 25 percent of the discount goes directly to the firm that operates the program. Then they tell you that there is a $10 a month processing fee. Oh, but wait, there will not be “per swipe” fees. Wow!
They claim that this program is geared to get residents to shop on Broadway. Can someone please tell me where are we supposed to shop? If you want to buy shoes for anyone in your family, we cannot shop in Bayonne because there are no shoe stores. If you want to buy clothes for your children, where can you go? If you don’t have a budget, you can shop at Baby Barn or Different Strokes, but if you are on a budget, you are out of luck. Teenagers have no place to shop for decent clothes and neither do adults for that matter. Growing up here all your life, people remember what was here years ago. Instead of focusing on filling the back highway with mini malls, how about putting more attention on bringing back stores that make a difference to Bayonne? To look at Broadway now is a disgrace.
How about instead of building more housing, try to get back major companies. I remember when the industrial companies were the big tax payers, and homeowners weren’t picking up the brunt of the taxes. The politicians have allowed the industrial businesses to leave Bayonne, raised our taxes, which have gone up consistently over the last three years, and in the last year our municipal and school taxes went up, and by our taxes going up, the store owners raise the rents of the stores so renters could not afford to continue to do business. That means more boarded-up buildings.
Where have our elected officials been? Do they really know what is going on in town with the real people? I don’t think so. Do they really care? They only care during an election year. Next year we will see them scurrying all over town opening car doors and bringing the seniors goodies. They should take public-speaking classes. Maybe when they lie to us, it won’t sound like it is coming from the uniformed idiots.
Thank you
JOAN PRUDEN