COLLETTI CALLS STATE AID FIGURES A FARCE

COLLETTI FOR SENATE

38th District – Bergen County

COLLETTI CALLS STATE AID FIGURES A FARCE 

PROPERTY TAX RELIEF DENIED FOR MANY TOWNS 

Elmwood Park – Republican state Senate candidate Robert Colletti said the state’s extraordinary aid figures announced yesterday are “a farce” offering little aid to towns in District 38 and making a mockery of Gov. Corzine and the Democrat legislators’ so-called tax reform plan. 

Colletti noted only two towns in District 38  (Hasbrouck Heights and Little Ferry)  got any funding from the extraordinary aid pool, which was pared down by $9 million by Corzine.  

 Colletti said not only is there less state aid in the pool, but that the increase in pension costs for police, firefighters, municipal and school board workers will more than offset the state aid and will offset property tax rebates.

“The entire tax reform initiative by Gov. Corzine and the Democrat leaders like Sen. Joe Coniglio (D-38) is a farce,” said Colletti. “Sen. Coniglio and the Democrats raised the sales tax last year, increased spending this year, increased pension payments and cut back on state aid and they want us to believe that they have delivered us tax reform. It’s a scam.”

 Colletti said the aid to Hasbrouck Heights and Little Ferry ($150,000 each) will be offset by an added $186,122 and $107,200 respectively in pension payments for police officers. Additionally, each of those towns, like every other town in the state, will have to pay the full pension costs for municipal and school board workers. 

In Hasbrouck Heights that amounts to $304,039 this year and $140,024 for Little Ferry. Colletti’s hometown of Elmwood Park will have to pay $915,000 for police pensions this year, an increase of $241,000; plus $347, 345 for municipal worker pensions. Fair Lawn will have to cough up $1.17 million for police pensions, an increase of $186,000, while also paying $1.27 million for municipal and BOE pensions. Paramus, meanwhile will pay $2.35 million for police pensions, an $869,000 increase, and $1.07 million for BOE and municipal worker pensions. 

Colletti said the increase in pension costs are necessary to make up for the deficit in the pension program caused by state government giving municipalities a “pension holiday”  in recent years, and disguising it as a tax cut.  “The pension holiday was a gimmick that has come back to bite taxpayers, just as this year’s tax rebate is a gimmick,” said Colletti. “The increased pension costs, which will continue for the foreseeable future, will have to be shouldered by local homeowners.”   

Colletti added: “You can’t create tax relief without cutting spending and the Trenton legislators, like my opponent Sen. Coniglio, refuse to cut spending. Instead they have increased spending by $11 billion since 2002, including this year’s $2.5 billion increase.”

 Colletti is running with Assembly candidates John Driscoll of Paramus, Renee Czarnecki of South Hackensack.District 38 comprises: Cliffside Park Borough, Edgewater Borough, Elmwood Park Borough, Fair Lawn Borough, Fort Lee Borough, Hasbrouck Heights Borough, Little Ferry Borough, Lodi Borough, Paramus Borough, Ridgefield Borough, Saddle Brook Township, South Hackensack Township, Teterboro Borough,