This letter was sent out with the 2014 Preliminary Tax Bills on October 1, 2014

Translations for the sake of transparency and truth in advertising are printed in red.

Dear Resident:

During the past few years, the City has (you taxpayers have) borne the burden of a national recession and housing foreclosure crisis which has created a hardship for many in our community. Coupled with the sluggish rebound of our national economy, it is difficult to share that our great City is facing serious financial challenges inherited from the prior administration ( for which not one of the re-elected council members accepts any blame or shame). During this budget cycle, we (you) faced a $3.9 million City budget deficit, a $3.2 million deficit at the East Orange Water Commission, and a lack of investment (future spending of money we don't have) in capital improvements in our City.

Since I took office in January, we have been working steadfastly to stabilize (hide and cover up ) our finances and move the City toward an era of unprecedented progress and renewal ( more hiring of city employees and more spending of YOUR money). The 2014 Tax Rate, at 4.908%, represents a 3.9% increase from last year (because we can't stop taking your money and spending it on things that will make you want to keep us all in office for four more years). For the average household assessed at $175,000, this equates to an increase in annual taxes of $322.18 (for just this year - wait until you see how it keeps going up and up).

To secure our ( me and my gang of elected officials') financial future, we made the tough but necessary decision to increase (YOUR ) taxes to balance our budget and boost our local economy (without cutting the jobs and salaries of any incompetent city employees who probably get paid more than any of you). As we travel the road to fiscal recovery (as if that is even possible when we keep taking your money and spending it on wasteful city projects), I ask for your patience (shut up and close your eyes to what we are doing) in this multi-year effort (that's right, we'll be back again for more of YOUR money next year and on into the future) to achieve solvency (get rich at YOUR expense) while maintaining and improving critical municipal services (which means doing as little real work as possible while making it look as if we are really busy - lots of photos of my smiling face will be in the news approving everything that makes me look good).

With an eye toward attracting quality commercial development (businesses too stupid to realize they are here just for show) and ultimately stabilizing our (increasing YOUR) taxes and creating jobs (hiring more city employees because I have a lot of friends to whom I owe favors), I'm proud to share a few tangible results and updates on our administration's efforts:

 

 

As your Mayor, I will work tirelessly to return fiscal solvency (like I worked at reducing the budget as I promised in my campaign for mayor but came up with a better plan to just take more of YOUR money to pay for it all) to our Great City; however, I ask for your patience (shut up and don't complain). The fruit of our labor will not be realized overnight (or as long as I am mayor). This is a team effort, so please join me and get involved in our many programs and volunteer initiatives. Please visit our City website at www.eastorange-nj.gov for updates on municipal services and opportunities to get involved (which means nothing since we only update our Web site AFTER stuff has already happened and you can no longer get responses from our Facebook page).


OK, so I failed in cursive writing and penmanship even though I supposedly have an undergraduate degree in political science from Montclair State University and Juris Doctorate from Howard University School of Law.

Back to The East Orange True News