As Mayor of Elk Township, Gloucester County, I am respectfully writing you to express the challenges our town is facing as a result of your budget decisions. By way of background, Elk was established in 1891, and is one of New Jersey’s small towns with 3,800 residents your budget recommendations for 2008 will have a crippling effect on. Our municipality relies heavily on State aid, and we are now set to receive only 50% of what we received in 2007. I believe our quality of life and sense of small town values are at the core of what this country and State were built on and I know my constituents do not want to be forced to consolidate into a larger community. Bigger is not always better. Our community is 20 squares miles of mostly rural farm land, single family homes and very few ratable businesses. We employ very few full time municipal workers, and our police department enables us to have 24/7, two man patrols for our residents with no need for State Police coverage, saving New Jersey tax payer dollars. We have shared services with other municipalities, and our Department of Public Works does most of our car repairs at a lower rate than the local private garages. Our town’s civic engagement is exemplified by 70 men and women in our all volunteer fire and ambulance squads.

Further, we have now permanently preserved 3,000 acres of our 12,000 acres of land. That is 25% of our township committed to farming and open space. Because of that commitment, we are one of the many Southern New Jersey towns that desperately need the support of the Department of Agriculture. You are sending a “we do not care about you” message to our farmers with the possibility of eliminating this department from our State government.

Until New Jersey develops a plan to measure how efficient a township is, I would strongly recommend that you re-institute full property tax relief funding in this year’s budget. I would also welcome the opportunity to work with you to find the fairest way to deal with municipal tax relief funding for the year 2009.

Please accept my invitation to visit our community and surrounding towns at your earliest convenience, so we could discuss how our tax dollars are utilized better in our local communities, than in Trenton.

Sincerely,