To the Editor:
This letter is in rebuttal to the “Message from the mayor, the in review part 1”. Mayor Smith states that when he took office in November 2008 Bayonne had a combined debt of $458,829,742 million dollars. Since then he has reduced the debt by forty percent to $275,253,000 million dollars.
It is true that he eliminated the Bayonne Municipal Utility Authority (BMUA) bonded debt of $150,000,000 million dollars because it was bankrupt and I doubt that it could meet the payroll. Mayor Smith had to lease out the BMUA to United Water for forty years. As they paid off the bonded debt. The mayor gave the property owners a new debt as United Water stated that it will increase utility rates every year for the next forty years. For the city it was lose, lose and for United Water it was win, win deal. The mayor then accepted the bonded debt of $75,000,000 million dollars of the infamous Bayonne Land Redevelopment Authority (BLRA).
Mayor Smith states the financial world has noticed the improvement in Bayonne books. How about the mayor showing the books to the city residents of how the former BMUA spent $150,000,000 million dollars in bonds. Show us the audits what it was spent on! By the way Mayor the present city debt is almost $300,000,000 million dollars and nothing to brag about!
LEONARD KANTOR