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28 Comments
I would say this is unbelievable but nothing done under Matt Dorehty is unbelievable. Justice is coming to him and Collen Connolly.
Didn’t he and his council bond 6 million dollars to pay for the Lake Como out flow pipe???
Where the hell is that money???
Robin Kirk signed that certification!
Justice now! Justice now!
Justice will be done.
What about the million dollar playground? Where is the rest of that money? It certainly didn’t cost a million dollars to build that playground.
Unfortunately for all Belmar residents, tax more, spend more. A vicious cycle that will continue again with this group of people in charge. Vote them out. I’ve seen absolute no effort to cut budgets and limit spending. And mark my words you will hear the same old excuses next year as they again spring another double digit increase on us. Stop the madness. Vote them out.
#1 I agree Katrina. I’m tempted to have lawn signs made up, “Justice Now” for all Belmar residence to put on their front lawns. So mad and disgusted with Doherty and Connelly.
#4/ Matt lackey/ Anonymous: Any idea how to cut the budget so that we can reap $36,000,000? Where do we do it?
No, you won’t offer solutions… just keep hammering people with the tax increase in the hopes they’re not paying attention to the details. But that doesn’t work here you see. We are informed and knowledgable. This is for real dude – $36,000,000 – mostly due to criminal behavior…..legally or simply morally, criminal.
As for the cuts: St. Rose has been takers for far too long. We can’t afford our senior building. Get rid of it and use OUR municipal gym for all senior activities. St. Rose has a huge empty lot they’re not paying taxes on – either sell it and give us a ratable, or build a gym.
Denial is not a river in Africa. Those who voted for and supported the democrats Doherty and his crew, who bamboozled the borough, cannot or will not admit that they were duped, and all they can do now to feel good is to trash the newcomers on council. Kind of immature – grow up and face the truth that the great saviors of humanity were self-serving political people, the former mayor being one half of an ambitious political couple who used the borough for their own purposes. And residents crying, “It’s not fair for us to pay for what the bad guys did” or some such thing, is naive. Why did they trust without question those who were in charge? Trust the democrats to care about the residents and do the right thing because they are the people’s party? Jeesh… It is clear that the new administration has to sort out a huge mess and set things right. That will not be easy. Give them a chance.
#6 … St Rose pays more than $12K taxes for the vacant land at the corner of 8th and Main.
The Methodist FREE Library on 7th Ave pays $0 taxes on assessed value of #2.2M … Time to rid Belmar of the FREE falsehood
#7, Im re-posting this just for you. I am late to the conversation but to bad.
Let me point some things out. These are the budgeted numbers. This doesn’t mean it will be the exact expense but they are a ball park.
This budget is the exact same thing Doherty would have given us except Walsifer raised taxes 21% to pay for it.
For instance, Police salary and wages went up from $3,011,700 to $3,198,000. Even at the beach front Police salaries went from $598,100 to $641,000. This is a $229,200 increase. Walsifer blamed it on contracts but look at everyone’s salary at the end of 2018.
http://blog.commonsenseforbelmar.org/2018-payroll-8-75-million/
everyone was angry about overtime, remember this?
Cox – $206K
Desserich – $164K
Huisman – $198K
Lynch – $190K
Scott – $167K
Yee – $160K
Campbell – $213K
total: $1,298,000
This budget not only continues the overtime abuses, it increases them. There was zero effort to better manage borough hall to reduce waste and abuse. Just a continuation of past practices.
The Administration & Executive-Salary & Wage (BA salary included) went down from $88,100 to $85,000 on the municipal side, but went up from $37,800 to $77,000 on the beach side. Meaning the beach utility is almost paying half of these salary. It will not be long before our town gets hand slapped from stealing from the beach utility. How can the mayor justify the BA spending almost 50% of their time working on the beach front that’s only open 6 hours a day 3 months a year? Stealing from the beach tag purchaser is not a sound financial plan to run the town.
This budget is in insult to anyone who believes in fiscal restraint and proper budgeting. I am embarrassed that so called fiscal conservatives in my political party voted for this budget. Please remember to thank the mayor and council for the 21% tax increase when you see them. The borough employee’s sure did.
Gordon Gekko: Greed is good.
Some People: Pay to play is good.
Peace.
Jim Bean for Mayor !
Belmar WAKEUP!!!! Mr.Bean is right on with his statement above…. We just have different faces in charge, on a new sending spree… I thought the new government would cut the fat and run the town with a reasonable budget.. Also the gentleman, at the budget meeting was right on when he stated each department head could easily cut 2.5% from a budget… This new group doesn’t have the wherewithal or backbone to properly fix this mess…
Alert, alert, alert: Budgets are prepared in PREPARATION of future costs based on past expenditures. Ethical personnel with Integrity will not use every penny of a budget just because it’s there. They should/will take a Conservative view on any Municipal expenditures. That’s the reason why I voted for Republicans who will prudently run Belmar like a business not a candy store. Planning our future and our children’s future is paramount.
Now is the time for all Belmar voters to send that portion of their tax increases caused by McDirty and his “all unknowing council” for full payment for their duplicitous lies of “Free, it’s free” everything in Belmar.
#13… LOW BALL RESPONDER… You are correct that SUCCESSFUL organizations base budgets on past expenditures… I hardly consider Belmar a successful entity.. But Belmar is not alone, most NJ Municipalities run on a very inefficient budget… As the old saying goes its easy to spend other people’s money…. There are many families in Belmar that cant afford this tax increase and it is incumbent on the new governing body to present an efficient budget… As individuals have noted on this blog, there are no line item cuts, only increases…
You are absolutely correct Summer Timer. There are NO BUDGET CUTS. This new regime does not have the backbone to do it. And to Low Baller, this may be a shock to you but all, not most, do not take a conservative view on Municipal expenditures, they spend every last drop in December of that year, knowing far well that if they don’t , their budget will be cut the following year. And I too voted Republican but am truly embarrassed to say so as this bunch is weak. Therefore, the only option is to get rid of them too. Jim Bean for Mayor write in. He is not weak and has the fortitude to make cuts where needed. There is TOO MUCH FAT in this small little town, the party is over piggies. Hit the road. Full time residents living on fixed incomes can not afford this increase.
I support this mayor and council but they have to do the hard things that must be done. Like I said at the meeting, [Sh*t flows down hill]. And at this point, the citizenry of Belmar find ourselves at the base of said hill.
Cut – Cut – Cut.
Cut 10% of all payroll across the board in each town dept. – the town is broke.
Cuts down at the beach. If we have to get rid of lifeguards – so be it. Just hang out a sign, no lifeguard on duty – [swim at your own risk – town is broke].
Make a final decision on 10th Ave pavilion/clubhouse. Get it workways or tear it down – the town is broke.
No more town crossing guards for St Rose students (private school – let them supply their own crossing guards – the town is broke)
No more San Gennaro, St.Patricks day or sea food festival – the town is broke.
Suspension of all senior citizen functions – the town is broke. Same with youth programs – the town is broke.
Get rid of all crossing guards at traffic lights (nuts) the town is broke.
It, but it is a sign of good faith between the governing body and the taxpaying citizenry. That is what we need during these hard times for our town.
In addition, the Methodist Church should be paying taxes on the former church property on 7th Avenue used by the borough for the so-called library annex, because the premises are no longer used as a church, if I am correct. The Methodists may decide to sell the property to a builder or developer if they don’t want to part with money for taxes and the borough could gain property tax monies later. It seems that the promise of a senior center there was a type of switcheroo because the Merry Makers deal seemed more advantageous to certain former administration persons, as well as them using the formation of a library annex to create a paid job for a certain political hack favorite. Then that person could be fired and the borough could save money on salary, benefits, etc.
#17… Tom, I think that is a little to harsh… We must bond our debt, but to help offset these payments each department should cut their respective budgets by 2.5%…. Also the BA stated that if the budget is not approved our town will deteriorate and home values will decrease…. High taxes are the number one cause of home depreciation… Nothern Jersey home values have declined at a rapid pace considering HIGH TAXES….
Guaranteed that there will be surplus monies at the end of Belmar’s coming fiscal year. I do not believe that anyone on the current council will allow all of the money budgeted to be spent this year. If they exhaust this budget as other municipal piggies have consistently done in the past, and then if mayor Mark +, chooses to follow in the infamous Mcdirty’s footsteps “if you don’t spend it all you won’t get it back next year” then mayor Mark’s guys are all out in 2020.
# 17 is right.
Normally I disagree with everything he utters, but he’s right. Cut it all at least temporarily. St Paddy’s parade,San Gennaro, Seafood Fest, etc etc. Sorry everyone who enjoys those events but until the organizers figure out a way to pay for them without the towns help? Cut. St Rose pays what they should pay or loses the gym privileges. Sorry. Every dept cuts 10% or the mayor does it for them. Sorry. DJais pays more in taxes (there are private homes in this town that pay more) and we increase the cost of having half the police force making sure the good people of Staten Island behave themselves. Mike Campbell is fired immediately. Huisman becomes actual chief instead of acting chief or steps down. We share street sweeping services and street brining with Avon and sell the two expensive trucks. It’s a town wide recession. Time to tighten the belt.
Any and all angry letters can be addressed to Matt Doherty, Tom Brennan, Jen Nickolay, and Brian McGovern.
#21 What do you think is a fair payment for that much use of our municipal gym? I don’t think St. Rose can afford the amount that would cover the loss of all the services we could provide in that gym. I’d rather have the activities for the seniors and kids than get payment from St. Rose. We are already paying for that building. Tell St. Rose sorry, but the gravy train has come to the end of it’s line. Also – rec programs like Jr. Guards is cheaper for Belmar residents than out of towners, with the exception of out of towners from St. Rose. Cut that out. This is a parochial school, they are not residents. I’m tired of feeling like a townie to the families who claim dibs on our services.
I know,iknow..’we are not Sea Girt’..but it is run by repubs and the report in the Star said they have not raised taxes for 8yrs AND they do not fund their town with debt. Their CFO, Carafa, runs a tight fisted budget keeps the dept heads in line and they fund a lot of their capex needs out of surplus. Are we that different that a ‘republican’ Mayor and council are incapable of righting the fiscal ship by budget cutting and a tight fisted approach? And I am in Jim Beans corner also, he has it right.
#23 according to Parker House article posted by Admin recently, Sea Girt has found a way to extract huge payments from Parker House based on their impact. Maybe that’s part of the reason they have had no tax increases
The article a few weeks ago in Coast Star stated that the Parker House has made financial contributions to Sea Girt totaling nearly $500,000 in recent years. What has D’Jais paid Belmar.
Time for a Belmar city admittance tax on venues that charge admission and are patrolled by our police dept. 10% city admission tax on cover fees or VIP passes. Belmar is broke cancel the parade.
Yes #24&25 some of it is how they deal with their bars but even more so it is an attitude that pays attention to the details and is run for the taxpayers. Even a ‘republican’ M&C in Belmar does not operate that way. When that changes cuts will be made and the debts the prior M&C ran up will start to be addressed. Until then we will teeter along steps away from the debt abyss and the further unfunded legal liabilities that are the Doherty legacy,thanks Matt.
Cash cover charges aren’t factored in as taxable by bars in Belmar, so saith the tax man who cometh.
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