Thursday, October 30, 2008

New Tax and Those Who Support It

ET begins today's column with a warning. A warning that a new tax is lurking behind Local Question #1 that will be on the November 4th ballot.

"The high-powered sports lobby maneuvered our township committee into approving the following referendum (Local Question #1). This is a permanent tax-you'll pay till you die."

Those are not ET's words. They are the words of two prominent Republicans. Jerry and Sue Harper sent them in a widely distributed email to warn townspeople about the current attempt to flim-flam voters into swallowing a new and costly TAX. Jerry Harper was the 2006 campaign manager for the local Republican ticket. ET congratulates The Harpers for having the civic responsibility to breakaway from the tax-and-spend philosophy of the Hartman-Matthews-Lisella clubhouse and stepping up to the plate as part of a bipartisan effort to control the cost of living in 08005. The Harpers know that Barnegat must live within its means.

Neighbors, the undisputed FACTS are that Freeholder "Diamond" Jack Kelly stood in Barnegat town hall and promised YOU and YOUR family that the county would build a recreation complex along Barnegat Boulevard at no additional cost to Barnegat taxpayers. Like so many other promises Kelly has made in the past, it was a LIE.

Think back and remember Jack Kelly. Kelly is the pot-bellied load who mounted an unsuccessful attempt to win the Republican nomination for the congressional seat vacated by Jim Saxton. Kelly was creamed by Chris Myers (an honest man) in the primary after it was learned that Kelly was given a $75,000.00 job at an area airport even though he (Kelly) did not meet the minimum qualifications. One of the bums who voted to give Kelly this political plum was the Ocean County Clerk Carl Block.

Hey, remember when the Hartman-Matthews-Lisella clubhouse told us it would take $13.6 million to build the complex? Then they reduced their guess to $6 million. Now, these great miracle workers are talking $2.5 million. Perhaps they can work some magic on the federal and state deficits. Better yet, maybe a local dealership will hire them to sell used cars.

ET thinks it is worthwhile to take a look at several of the people who are supporting this not-too-subtle attempt to pull the wool over YOUR eyes and raise YOUR taxes.

Thomas "The Sinister Minister" Kostka. This is the self-anointed honcho of Project Playground - or should we say "Koradigo Cove?" Thomas Kostka cannot account for more than $28,000.00 of money that YOU donated to build the playground. Hell, the certified public accountant who donated his services to the project condemned Kostka for his abominable record keeping. Kostka failed to produce even one single receipt for the money (YOUR money) he spent. Thomas Kostka was kicked off YOUR Board of Education this past April after YOU and thousands of your neighbors had a bellyful of his costly fiscal mismanagement. Kostka was part of a Board that levied the highest tax increases in the history of the Barnegat school system. Kostka approved of paying Thomas McMahon more than $5000.00 per week plus a benefit package that would choke a horse.

Anthony "Lightfingers" Gorman. Gorman was the former campaign manager for Thomas "Hopeless" Hartman. Gorman was canned from his former job after his employer learned that he "acquired" company property without company permission. Gorman lost the Republican nomination for township committee in 2006 when he confessed that he was in it for "selfish reasons." Gorman worked with The Sinister Minister during the controversial Project Playground debacle. Gorman is the "go" in Koradigo.

Gerald Inkhen. Inkhen is not a bad guy. But he continually hitches his horse to the wrong wagon. Inkhen ran for YOUR Board of Education in April of this year. YOU rejected his candidacy by an overwhelming margin when it was shown that he had the same tax-and-squander mentality as Kostka and Kompany. If Inkhen ever "smells the coffee," he might be a good public servant.

"Smiling" Sally Germano. Smiling Sally is the mother of the overpaid athletic director of Barnegat high school. YOU threw Smiling Sally off the Board of Education this past April after it was proven that her son was appointed even though he might not have met the minimum qualifications. YOU recognized that Smiling Sally used her influence to realize personal gain for a member of her immediate family. By doing this, Smiling Sally caused another person who had worked hard and did meet all job requirements to be cast aside. Yes, YOU saw through tax-and-spend Sally's three-dollar bill smile and defeated her by a landslide.

"BLL" of the Barnegat Little League. Actually, there is no "BLL." A dumb email was sent (see the viewer's comments section of downtownbarnegat.com) by some schnook that was represented to be an endorsement of Local Question #1. The perpetrators of this unforgiveable fraud clearly endorsed, as the Harpers properly labeled it, "a permanent tax you'll pay till you die."

David "Body Shop" Breeden. Breeden is the current township administrator. Breeden is the guy the Republican clubhouse used as a sacrificial lamb when Len Morano exposed the clubhouse's conspiracy to give select township employees a 49% raise. Breeden is also the guy who was the focus of an intense police investigation when he worked in Camden. Camden cops learned that Breeden was dealing with "friendly"auto body repair shops even though Camden had a contract with other establishments. Hey, the clubhouse only hires the best!

Neighbors, there is one simple and clear issue before YOU. Do YOU want higher taxes??? If YOU do then vote in favor of this question. Just don't come crying to ET when the bill comes in.

The members of the ET consortium will be voting NO on Local Question #1.

Barnegat already has playing fields so little Johnny and Jane don't have to play ball in the gutter. Open up the fields at YOUR high school for the various leagues to use. Take a walk behind the Brackman Middle School. You will find acre-upon-acre of good, usable playing fields that only need minor, inexpensive improvements. Why must we build new ones before using what we already have? This is Barnegat - not the Meadowlands.

The same irresponsible bozos who are pushing for this new TAX are the very people who advocated to have the playing fields covered with Astro-Turf at a cost to YOU of greater than $1,000,000,00. When does it stop?

Friends, this is what Len Morano and Gene Chiarelli are talking about. Every one of the people pushing in favor of this new TAX are members of the Hartman-Matthews-Lisella clubhouse. Some of them have questionable backgrounds. They have been picking YOUR family's pockets for years.

Have YOU had enough???

Kostka, Gorman, Inkhen plus Kenneth Matthews and Martin Lisella are all magna cum laude graduates of the Thomas Hartman school of raising taxes. They all believe in digging YOU and YOUR family deeper and deeper into debt. It is the Hopeless Hartman method that resulted in Barnegat going from the #1 place to live down to #270 - and slipping. This is what lowered YOUR property value.

Thomas Hartman leaves the township committee in disgrace at the end of 2008. Hell, even the so-called "developer tax" that was supposed to pay for recreation was written so defectively that it was stricken by the courts. Talk about the Gang Who Can't Shoot Straight!

Barnegat took a major step forward when we cleaned house on the school board just a few months ago. The immediate benefit of that housecleaning was a savings to YOU and YOUR family of over $500,000.00 in the school budget. No negative affect on the kid's education. Just a trimming of the pork barrel school budget. Something that the Kostkas, Gormans and Inkhens would not do.

Are YOU going to listen to a guy (Kostka) who cannot account for over $28,000.00 of donated taxpayer's money (YOUR money) that was entrusted to him? Can YOU believe a character (Gorman) that was fired because he stole his employer's property? How about a clubhouse-appointed administrator who was closely investigated by the police and thought it was fine to give his pals a 49% pay hike? Or a scheming former school board member (Germano) who took care of her own son by disenfranchising another mother's child? Do YOU have faith in the people who have driven the cost of living in Barnegat to the point where many of YOUR neighbors have lost their homes to the tax man?

Neighbors, do YOU want to buy the Brooklyn Bridge?

Good friends, living beyond our means and mortgaging the future is what got the United States into the financial crisis YOU and YOUR family currently face. Barnegat is not the U.S. Congress. We cannot wave a magic wand and come up with millions of dollars to bail Barnegat out of debt. We have to learn and honor the basic common sense ideals of not buying something unless we can pay for it. Each and every person reading ET's words owes this to themselves and their children and grandchildren.

Join with ET and thousands of YOUR neighbors in striking a blow for common sense and fiscal sanity. Vote NO on Local Question #1.

And while you are at it . . . .

Re-Elect Len Morano
Elect Gene Chiarelli