ARTICLE: Elected Officials Must Collaborate On Garwood Municipal Budget
By Jen Blumenstock | Published in The Union County Hawk, April 21, 2022
It’s budget season once again, my sixth one as a Council Member here in Garwood. Each year’s budget presents its own challenges, with this year being no different. As our finance committee works to strike the balance of funding the services and programs critical to our town, it must also ensure that the impact to the taxpayer is minimized as much as possible. This year’s budget has the unique addition of the first installment of PILOT money coming in from the Vermella development project. It also has the unique setting of a Mayoral campaign coming down the pike in November with two sitting Council people vying for the office. However, I think it’s already clear that one of us is looking towards Garwood’s future, and the other is stuck in the past.
This year’s budget, as it stands of this printing, includes two noteworthy highlights. The first includes an additional 17th police officer supported unanimously by the entire Council. The second includes appropriating the PILOT revenue. Of this total $570,000, the budget redirects $150,000 to support the Board of Education and fund their gym floor replacement project, with the remaining $420,000 for municipal tax relief. It also adds funding for programs for Senior Citizens, Recreation, Celebrations, and Historical Committees. In addition, the budget also invests in Garwood by increasing the capital improvement fund line to $70,000 (vs. $10,000 last year). Our current capital fund is at a mere $58,000, which at that level we would be unable to even consider moderate capital investments, like department equipment, let alone a new DPW building, which would need substantial down payments, even if funded through bonding.
The largest strain on this year’s budget comes from mandatory and substantial contractual increases in salaries and wages, as well as health benefits. We are able to offset some of this by selling $243,000 in surplus sewer flow rights to Springfield and apply 60% of these proceeds for tax relief in this year’s budget, while reserving the remaining 40% for offset-flexibility for next year’s budget. This is in addition to the tax relief afforded by the PILOT money noted previously. With all this, the budget will have a historically modest impact of approximately $75 dollars on average per home. This is less than last year's amount and significantly less than the first decade of the 2000’s, which had increases well over $100 nearly every year. That said, this impact is not something I take lightly. I have thought long and hard about areas to possibly cut or alternative revenue sources to identify, to bring that impact down. Over my six years on Council, I have been successful in bringing Garwood some of the lowest tax impacts in decades, including 2018 and 2020, which saw no increases in municipal taxes at all. I pride myself at being able to think outside the box and collaborate with my colleagues on Council and the professionals to find ways to minimize yearly increases even as day to day costs skyrocket around us.
At this point in the budget cycle, and after much discussion with the bipartisan finance committee, which has reached each final budget line-item decision unanimously, I believe the proposed budget is a fair one, that aggressively cuts costs without sacrificing Garwood’s public safety and top-quality services. When asked at our last Council meeting if there were any significant opportunities to cut costs that were not being discussed, the Business Administrator offered the example of privatizing garbage. However, each of us agreed, in no uncertain terms, that we will not privatize garbage as we value that service and will not agree to layoffs. And despite any questions that may have arisen as a result of deceptive and fragmented posts by the GOP Council members on their dual social media page, any suggestion that we would be in favor of such an idea is completely false.
Now here’s where the wrench comes in: GOP Councilwoman Loffredo, one member of the 3-person finance committee who voted unanimously with her Democratic colleagues on every number that found its way into the budget presented to the Council, states she no longer supports her own budget. Councilwoman Salmon, the GOP’s mayoral candidate, also came out, even before full discussion, saying she will not support it. Their reasoning however leaves me a bit perplexed. She cites decisions of the past, such as the 2019 purchase of the rescue platform ladder truck, that has apparently, as she sees it, put us in a poor financial position. Now, I obviously disagree. That was a long-debated and, I feel, a necessary addition to our Fire Department and approved with bipartisan support. And while it obviously increased debt, any idea of “massive spending” on the Councils of the past few years is absurd. “Massive spending” when two of the last four years were $0 impacts? To me, this is just more of the usual rhetoric thrown around when there are two parties up on the dais, more of the same old.
Regardless, disagreeing with past Councils’ decisions cannot be the reason an elected official does not do the job she was elected to do. The constituents elect us to come to the table and work with or fix what is in front of us now. Guess what happens if everyone on Council were to do that? The State comes in and takes over the town. Anyone that votes no on a budget without suggesting specific, feasible, and mathematically plausible ways to adjust it, is looking for a political sound bite that they didn’t vote to increase taxes. They are shirking their duty knowing that the majority party will do what needs to be done to fulfill our governing requirements.
When I came into office in 2017, there were certainly decisions that were made in the past that I did not necessarily agree with. But I worked and planned and fixed the things that I was put into the office to do. Can you imagine if I just said that I wasn’t happy with the state of things and crossed my arms and voted no to the budget without offering feasible alternatives? I’m sure the very people doing that now would have a lot to say about that.
If there is one thing that I have learned after six years of doing this, it’s that municipal budgeting is not easy, and no two budgets are comparable. It would be wonderful if it was, but there are so many different facets at play locally, statewide and nationally that make that virtually impossible. But we are elected to find ways to make it work for the residents. We work for the people, not for ourselves. Not liking something doesn’t give us an excuse not to do our job. As it stands now, the budget has been tabled, with the hope that we can come together to pass this budget unanimously. We have come to the table in good faith with our GOP counterparts. I welcome discussions with them about areas we perhaps still could look at to lower the tax impact - nothing would truly make me happier, for the sake of collaboration and for the sake of the taxpayer. I am asking my GOP colleagues to leave the past behind and look to the future with me. Let’s do our duty with this budget and let’s do it together.
Jen Blumenstock
Garwood Borough Council President
Candidate for Garwood Mayor