The problem: West Milford receives very little in the way of property taxes from the City of Newark on the 16,000 acres that it owns in the township. The land is zoned as watershed and can’t be developed.
Proposed solution #1 - let’s hire a lobbyist and pay him with our hard-earned tax dollars. Hopefully the lobbyist will be able to get us some money from either the City of Newark or from the State of New Jersey; however, there is no guarantee. If the lobbyist is not successful, we don’t get our money back.
Proposed solution #2 - Light a fire under Jay Webber, Betty DeCroce, and Joseph Pennacchio. In case you don’t recognize the names, they are our so called representatives in Trenton. What have they ever done for West Milford?
In Dec. 1773, the citizens of Boston dumped tea into the harbor to protest “taxation without representation.” It’s time for the citizens of West Milford to stop automatically electing people to the state legislature who don’t even know that we exist. Every two years, we vote for “representation without representation.”
The fact that the town council is even considering hiring a lobbyist to represent us speaks volumes about our political system. The system is awash in money from campaign contributions and people looking to buy influence with their contributions.
Proposed solution #3 -Rather than amending our local “pay to play” ordinance to accommodate a lobbyist, the mayor and council ought to demand that the governor hold one of his Town Hall events in West Milford so that he can hear it first hand from us. Heck, they can even pass a resolution at the next council meeting to invite the governor.
How about it ladies and gentlemen?
Robert Nolan
West Milford
Former Councilman