9% increase. Where were you?

On Monday June 8th the Council voted to pass a budget increase for the 2020 budget. Initially there was a 10.5% increase on the table, but council blessed us by reducing the increase by $450,000 which brought the increase down to just over 9%.

If you’ve been following Restore GT you’d know we sent over our version of the budget known as The Citizen’s Budget. The Citizen’s Budget only called for a 3% increase which was pretty easy on council, because we didn’t go after things like salaries. We were also stuck with the debt the council borrowed from previous years. Council rejected our budget and called it irresponsible.

The most notable thing of the night was how many people attended the online meeting. I kept an eye on the attendee count and it floated around 77 all night. Folks… We have over 47,000 voters in Gloucester Township and less than 100 of you attended or called in? You are being robbed in your sleep! They aren’t going to stop taking your money for things you’ll never use if you don’t show up and then don’t care about how mad you are on Facebook.

A few people called into the meeting to challenge the decision of the increase, but they were hurried off the phone as Mercado just seemed to rush through the motions of hearing from the complainers. The calls started off with some lesser known citizens calling in to express their concerns and ideas. The usual council attendees were forced to the back of the line and oddly enough had to deal with a sudden drop in audio as they asked questions.

After all was said and done, some council members gave long winded speeches about how hard of a decision it was to take more money from struggling citizens. Dan Hutchison gave an Academy Award winning presentation on how tough it was, but in the end he also voted to stick it to the people. Andrea Stubbs was the only council member to vote no on the increase. She’s either the hero of the day or just the planned mercy vote.

Are you mad or is it just the few of us? If you are, you should REGISTER and join us.