| Author |
Message |
    
ffof
Citizen
Username: Ffof
Post Number: 1961
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Monday, February 23, 2004 - 3:28 pm: |     |
I just got back from vacation and read last week's NR. Looks like Millburn is on the road to having a bill for secession and Montclair and the Caldwells want to secede also. We can't sit around like dead ducks. Does our TC have an opinion? How about SO?
If we all secede just think what will happen to Essex County government! |
Reflective
Citizen
Username: Reflective
Post Number: 317
Registered: 3-2003
| | Posted on Monday, February 23, 2004 - 4:34 pm: | |
Don't you really mean succeed? |
Joan
Citizen
Username: Joancrystal
Post Number: 2496
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Monday, February 23, 2004 - 4:47 pm: | |
ffof: That's a good question. If enough of the more affluent towns secede from Essex County, municipalities such as Newark, Irvington, East Orange and the like may be forced to fund their own programs or obtain significant State funding to cover costs which have been met by Millburn, Montclair, the Caldwells, etc. |
susan1014
Citizen
Username: Susan1014
Post Number: 85
Registered: 3-2002
| | Posted on Monday, February 23, 2004 - 8:00 pm: | |
Which is why the likelyhood of the state approving this sort of thing is so low. If the state were re-sorted so that all of the higher income towns were in one set of counties, and all of the low income towns in a different set of counties, then the legislators who approved the changed county lines would soon have to approve a change in state income tax levels to provide services now funded by county budgets.
Of course some local politician will make a stand for this at the state legislature, with all attendant publicity. However, I can't imagine the rest of the state choosing to open this particular can of worms! |
John Davenport
Citizen
Username: Jjd
Post Number: 127
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Monday, February 23, 2004 - 11:42 pm: | |
This secession thing is getting serious and worrying. If Millburn gets anywhere with this, we will be totally screwed, hit with hundreds of dollars of county income tax increases per household. It is time to start organizing a boycott of Millburn businesses. What they are trying to do to their neighboring townships is unconscionable. I'm all for reconsidering whether we need county government, but this is not the way to do it, at the expense of poorer towns. My heart does NOT bleed for Millburn. These crybabies are hardly the worst squeezed in Essex county! If you take the average Millburn resident's federal tax cut since Bush took office, and compare it to the average Maplewoodian's tax cut, you'll see that the difference exceeds the total amount that average Millburnian pays in county taxes per year. So cry me a river. I hope for his sake that I never meet Tom McDermott! |
mtierney
Citizen
Username: Mtierney
Post Number: 490
Registered: 3-2001
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 24, 2004 - 12:25 pm: | |
How in the world will we tax-oppressed people ever make any headway if we do not unite? We need to join Millburn's effort, not try to boycott it! A boycott is negative.
Until we have some clout and wake up the folks in Newark and Trenton, we will be talking about the mess and waste that is Essex County for decades to come.
A little thread drift here: Back during the reval a lot of folks pleaded with the TC to resist conforming to the need to reassess until absolutely required to do so. The impact on fixed income families and seniors was ignored - after all, they could just pick up and move! The social engineering resulting was dismissed as whining old folks hanging on too long.
Sunday's Times had an interesting article on a reval in Ocean Grove and taxes - funny, in that community, social engineering and its effect on a community is a real issue.
On another thread I recall reading the comment that if you lose your job, your income taxes are reduced - not so with real estate taxes which continue to rise.
My apologies for the harking back and drift, but "attention must be paid." |
sbenois
Citizen
Username: Sbenois
Post Number: 10766
Registered: 10-2001
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 24, 2004 - 2:54 pm: | |
Sound to me like Tom McDermott deserves a medal for facing the county tax issue head on. We should have been speaking to him two years ago.
---> Brought to you by Sbenois Engineering LLC <-
Let's Go Royals
|
ajc
Citizen
Username: Ajc
Post Number: 2491
Registered: 9-2001
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 24, 2004 - 3:26 pm: | |
It is time to start organizing a boycott of Millburn businesses. What they are trying to do to their neighboring townships is unconscionable.
vs.
Sounds to me like Tom McDermott deserves a medal for facing the county tax issue head on. We should have been speaking to him two years ago.
OK, lets find some common ground here... I believe our TC is already meeting with South Orange, why not organize a public town forum between Maplewood, South Orange, and Milburn.
IMHO, joining forces seems like the best way to address these tax issues... |
Tom Reingold
Citizen
Username: Noglider
Post Number: 2224
Registered: 1-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, February 25, 2004 - 3:13 pm: | |
Is there any chance the secession can succeed? Is it just a way of making a statement?
Tom Reingold the prissy-pants
There is nothing
|
Joan
Citizen
Username: Joancrystal
Post Number: 2502
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Wednesday, February 25, 2004 - 4:39 pm: | |
Millburn originally threatened to secede from Essex County after the new State Senate/Assembly districts were drawn, leaving Millburn the only Essex County municipality in their new district. Persons in Millburn, legitimately I think, interpreted this as a significant loss of power/representation/clout for Millburn interests. To call attention to their situation, Millburn decided that if the political powers that be considered Millburn unimportant enough to Essex County to remove them from what amounted to Essex County representation at the State level that they should move to join one of their contiguous counties instead. Then as Millburn residents and others began to examine the idea more closely, a number of real advantages to sucession became obvious.
In summary: I believe that it started as a statement and became a serious movement as real interest in sucession grew.
|
Joan
Citizen
Username: Joancrystal
Post Number: 2503
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Wednesday, February 25, 2004 - 4:42 pm: | |
Will it succeed? Millburn has about as much of a chance of sucession from Essex County as Staten Island has of succession from New York City and the Staten Island folks have been at it for a very much longer time with no success. |
mtierney
Citizen
Username: Mtierney
Post Number: 492
Registered: 3-2001
| | Posted on Thursday, February 26, 2004 - 11:38 am: | |
Unless we try, we'll never know for sure. The act of rebellion against confiscatory taxation is what joining Millburn will indicate.
Quiet resignation and acceptance over the years has us where we are today.
As I previously stated - "Attention must be paid!" |
anon
Citizen
Username: Anon
Post Number: 995
Registered: 6-2002
| | Posted on Saturday, February 28, 2004 - 5:46 pm: | |
If Millburn can secede from Essex County, can Hunterden County secede from New Jersey and join Pennsylvania if that will lower their taxes. Can the State of Washington secede and join Canada?
Can the so-called "Hill", which I think of as the Jefferson School District, secede from Maplewood and join Millburn? |
Joan
Citizen
Username: Joancrystal
Post Number: 2524
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Saturday, February 28, 2004 - 8:06 pm: | |
Sure! As long as the proper approvals can be obtained and therein lies the problem. |
ffof
Citizen
Username: Ffof
Post Number: 1999
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Sunday, February 29, 2004 - 9:27 am: | |
Anon - NOBODY who lives in the Jefferson area refers to their neighborhood as "the Hill". |
anon
Citizen
Username: Anon
Post Number: 1008
Registered: 6-2002
| | Posted on Sunday, February 29, 2004 - 1:58 pm: | |
ffof: I thought so. |
bobk
Supporter
Username: Bobk
Post Number: 4827
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Sunday, February 29, 2004 - 3:39 pm: | |
Actually this year we are coming off fairly easily on the Essex County portion of our taxes, only about a $10 per house increase on average.
Forgot to check Millburn. 
This is in the NJ section of today's Star Ledger. |
Tom Reingold
Citizen
Username: Noglider
Post Number: 2255
Registered: 1-2003
| | Posted on Monday, March 1, 2004 - 10:12 am: | |
I heard on NPR this morning that Killington, VT is voting to secede from VT and join NH, even though it's 20 miles away. This seems like a trend.
Tom Reingold the prissy-pants
There is nothing
|
TomR
Citizen
Username: Tomr
Post Number: 152
Registered: 6-2001
| | Posted on Monday, March 1, 2004 - 10:39 am: | |
bobk,
Millburn is preliminarily scheduled to receive about a $150.00 reduction.
Tom Reingold
Please say it ain't so. I hate skiing in N.H.
TomR. |
bobk
Supporter
Username: Bobk
Post Number: 4831
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Monday, March 1, 2004 - 12:42 pm: | |
"The squeaky wheel gets to oil"
|
Joan
Citizen
Username: Joancrystal
Post Number: 2537
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Monday, March 1, 2004 - 4:53 pm: | |
Succession a new trend? Remember the War Between the States? |
Habanero2
Citizen
Username: Habanero2
Post Number: 40
Registered: 12-2003
| | Posted on Monday, March 8, 2004 - 7:45 pm: | |
A lot of Maplewoodians are planning to secede on their own. They are moving to lesser taxed counties.
Until I am able to move, though, I vote we join Millburn.
"You kids today have it easy. When I was a kid everything was HUGE. My dad was nearly four times bigger than me. You couldn't even see the tops of counters.... Then gradually everything became smaller until it was the manageable size it is today." |
Neen
Citizen
Username: Neen
Post Number: 21
Registered: 1-2004
| | Posted on Tuesday, March 9, 2004 - 2:13 pm: | |
Areas like Newark and Irvington are a state problem, and the state of New Jersey needs to take responsibility for them rather than just funding them through neighboring towns. If others must pay for the costs of these areas, then it should be statewide, not county. |
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