Hello and thank you for visiting our site.
Are you tired of politicians seeking your support with campaign literature and mass mailings while avoiding concrete stands on the issues? Let us introduce ourselves and a different kind of campaign. We are Luis Perdomo and John Thorn, and we are running for South Hackensack Township Committee. We are real people with a real plan to ease our tax burden.
Our primary goal is to improve the quality of life for all of us by reducing property taxes. We too watched as our taxes rose earlier this year. The fact is the Township Committee had very little control over why our taxes went up the way they did. We, the township residents, voted to approve the bond referendum for our school. Then we were hit with the recent industrial area tax relief appeals, the property tax revaluation, and increases from both county and state governments.
The primary reason we decided to run this year was because we strongly believe that there is only so much that can be “cut” from our town’s budget. At some point, there will be nothing left to cut, and we don’t want to sit by and watch our essential services wither away through attrition, just so we can cover ever-rising costs.
We said that we want to run a different kind of campaign. Here is what we mean. We want to lay out our vision for how to solve our tax burden. We are going to be the first to openly lay out a plan and discuss with you new ways to raise revenues that do not impact us. We hope to do this as clearly, and as simply as we can, given the complex nature of the problems faced.
An honest, open, and frank discussion of ideas is what is needed as we face these changing times together. Now is not the time for the politics of the past. Like it or not, the decisions we make over the next few years will have real costs for us far into the future.
Here are two points to think about:
- It has been said that history repeats itself.
- It has also been said that those who don’t learn the lessons from history are doomed to repeat them.
* As to point #1, about history repeating itself – We, the residents of South Hackensack, are once again at a crossroads, and hard decisions need to be made about our future. Anyone who has read a paper in the past year knows that taxes are out of control, and every level of government is looking for options.
* As to point #2, about learning from the past – We know that the hard choices made by the leaders of our town back in the late 1940’s brought prosperity for the decades to follow. We also know that just as now, there was vocal, and sometimes hostile opposition from a small few who could not see the inevitable: that South Hackensack, with or without their approval, was going to evolve from away from the farming community it once was – just as our community is now changing away from what it was in the 1940’s.
From where we sit now in history, it’s like we are watching a movie where everyone in the audience knows what is going to come – except for those characters saying “Don’t worry. You don’t have to make any hard decisions. If we do nothing, everything is going to be just fine.” The problem is, we in the audience know just how wrong the choice to do nothing will be.
But, here we are in 2006, and once again we are faced with an eroding tax base and painfully high taxes, with a small group of people who don’t believe we should do anything. It’s time to put the past behind us, and embrace the hope of the future. We strongly believe carefully chosen strategic choices can work to minimize our tax burdens – just as the choices to move in a new direction did for us in the 1940’s. Our philosophy is simple, the less we all pay in taxes, the more $$$ we all keep in our pocket.
Ok you say, big political promises, but what are you specifically going to do? We will work to reduce all of our taxes through a combination of ideas:
- Find ways to Share Services, where possible, with other towns to reduce costs. This doesn’t mean the elimination of jobs for our friends. Why can’t we be the ones offering services to other towns? Why can’t we be one of the towns gaining services instead of outsourcing them to others?
- Carefully re-zoning our industrial and commercial areas to create higher ratables (income) shifting the tax burden from homeowners by bringing in new business. It’s being done very successfully in other towns, so why can’t it be done here?
- Encouraging redevelopment in vacant or underutilized commercial areas. By going in a different professional direction – one with a mix of new retail and office space, we can create jobs not only for ourselves, but for our children.
We have a wonderful town, filled with caring families and good friends. However, the undisputable fact is, South Hackensack is faced with an eroding tax base. The warehousing and light industrial age, as we knew it for the past 40 years, is over in Bergen County and we need to look to a new direction. A direction led by emerging industries and technologies if we want to reduce our taxes. Improving our ratables (income) will create an economic environment where we can all afford our homes, and still have money left over to do the things we enjoy.
The choice is yours on Election Day. We are Luis Perdomo and John Thorn. We are running for South Hackensack Township Committee. We are real people with a real plan to ease our tax burden. We ask for your vote on Election Day because together, with your input, we can all make a difference.
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