LACEY – During a recent Township Committee meeting, deputy Mayor Timothy McDonald led his fellow Township Committee members expressing concern with the state’s finances, and supporting pending legislation.
“I’ve been talking about Senate and Assembly bills at some of our meetings lately and I had lunch with (9th District) Assemblyman Brian Rumpf and we talked about Assembly Bill A-1012 which is a bill where we can get some of our money back,” McDonald said.
“He feels that if there is ever a chance to get this bill through the assembly, this is the year to do it because, are you ready for this, New Jersey is choking on money,” he said.
Rumpf and fellow 9th District Assemblymember DiAnne Gove are among the co-sponsors of the legislation which has a companion bill in the Senate, S-330.
The legislation, “increases distribution to municipalities from Energy Tax receipts Property Tax Relief Fund over five years to restore municipal aid reductions; requires additional aid to be subtracted from municipal property tax levy.”
Utility poles are taxed. At one time, towns collected that tax. At some point, this changed and the state started collecting it with the understanding that the state would dole it back to towns. The towns have not received that money.
911 Fund Unused
The Deputy Mayor also brought up “something that irked me a little bit and that is the 911 fund. It is paid 90 cents per line on your cell phone or land line, whatever you have. They have never given the money out. It is over $10 billion.”
McDonald noted that this money is designated for 911 services for the county “and for us to help out for things of that nature. Two or three years ago we had to pay out $2.7 million for radios for the cops and for all emergency services.”
“Our township had to find the money and put aside other projects. Look it up you will be amazed at it,” McDonald added.
According to the state: “The revenue collected pursuant to the fee will serve to replace the current 9-1-1 infrastructure Statewide with a state-of-the-art enhanced 9-1-1 system. Revenue collected is also applied to pay for costs of funding the State’s capital equipment, facilities, and operating expenses that arise from emergency preparedness, emergency response training, counter-terrorism measures, security at State facilities including transportation infrastructure, preparation for first responders to chemical or biohazard emergencies, and any expenses of the Office of Emergency Management in the Division of State Police in the Department of Law and Public Safety.”
However, county and municipal officials have said the money goes into the “black hole” of the state budget, not to be used for its intended purpose.
Acting Civically
Committeeman Peter Curatolo spoke about the township’s primary election and he noted more people “acting civically and exercising their right to vote more than towns that are two or three times the size of ours so hats off to everybody who participated in the process.”
He also mentioned the 9th Legislative District referencing an article on Jersey Shore Online.com and thanked the lawmakers for “advocating for us.”
“I talked with our police chief and we’ll be doing some website updates to include the three major credit bureaus. The chief and I will be going out to our senior communities to talk about senior scams and this is a way to make the seniors voices heard before calling the police,” Curatolo said.
Rotary Recognized
Committeeman Steven Kennis said he enjoyed the recent Doggie Derby hosted by the Lacey Rotary Club “which was a really well attended event and it has gotten bigger every year. I also want to mention how important the Rotary Club is to Lacey Township. They purchase or contribute to a number of things around town.”
Township Clerk Veronica Laureigh who has been very active with the Lacey Rotary for nearly three decades said that the local chapter has contributed to the funding of a number of projects in the community over the last several decades. She noted the organization was marking its 50th anniversary next month.
She told The Southern Ocean Times that the organization is planning a joint project with the township that would honor one of its long-time members who is recently deceased. Details on that are forthcoming.
“They help out in so many ways. They are a great service organization,” Kennis added.
