Dear Editor:
I would like to take a few moments of our perspective candidates’ time (both mayor and city council) and ask them to consider a few issues and in particular my proposals/questions. A timely and public response would be greatly appreciated. I would like to focus on four topics:
Parking – has only degraded in the 21 years that I have been here. In my opinion this is directly attributed to large development projects. Given that these projects (e.g. the Shipyards/Maxwell House) and other sites were developed and designed with “sufficient” parking, I propose that all sites with adequate parking and home owners with driveways be restricted from having residential parking permits. These owners can park in their garages/driveways and when they need to park on the streets for shopping, can park in the non-residential side of the street.
Voting – running elections is expensive and Hoboken has historically had very poor turnout for local elections. Moving all the local elections to a single date that coincides with national elections (e.g. first Tuesday in November) will greatly increase turnout while reducing costs. A win-win in my book.
Education – in my opinion, education improvement should be the number one goal for a city like ours (where crime is modest.) Funding must be increased for all schools (including the charter schools) to attract the best and brightest staff and to provide better facilities and playgrounds. The public library which is heavily used by students should also have an increase in funding to upgrade the building and materials so that all children have access to more books and materials.
Taxes – given that the fiscal monitor (Judy Tripodi) has now thoroughly reviewed the budget, one has to believe that the current budget is accurate. Taxes will not decrease substantially without either substantial increases in revenue or cuts in the budget.
I would like each candidate to give an estimated budget for next year and detail the three largest revenue gains or cuts that they would propose and the effect of each on the budget. Your views of this are important to me and I believe all members of our community.
Scott Halstead