Borough Residents Beware

To the Editor: 

Borough residents have voted five consecutive times against Consolidation. One might suppose that yet another commission would therefore have made every effort to offer attractive reasons why Borough voters should change their minds.

But few concessions of any kind have been made to assuage the concerns of Borough residents. For all the arguments made by the Consolidation Commission, there is no overall benefit in consolidation for Borough voters. The losses, by contrast, are significant and outweigh the surprisingly minuscule “promised”  gain.

The savings  from consolidation were originally expected to be so high that they would wipe out recent revaluation increases. But in fact revaluation increased property taxes by huge amounts for many: from 10 percent to an amazing 50 percent. The commission projects the savings from consolidation to be a mere 2 percent of property taxes.

By contrast, consolidation would cause significant losses for Borough residents.

First, transition costs would likely exceed the commission's estimate, which was artificially decreased to fit state guidelines.

Second, two-thirds of the Borough's municipal property taxes from the redeveloped hospital site and Palmer Square/Hulfish areas would go to Township residents. The commission claims that the Township will also obtain new taxes from development, but the Borough projects are definitely going to be built; the Township projects may never be built.

Third, former Borough residents would have to subsidize the collection of garbage from Township houses, maintain the Township's extensive road network and add  sidewalks, curbs and sewers (which Borough neighborhoods already have) to Township neighborhoods.

Fourth, and very important, Borough residents would be disenfranchised. At least two-thirds of the voters would be from the former Township, and it is likely that they would vote for former Township residents for any new town council. Decisions affecting former Borough residents would be made by groups that currently have guaranteed Borough representation, but that would in the future mostly be made up of former Township residents--the town council, the Planning Board, the Zoning Board, the School Board and the Recreation Board.

Fifth, the level of services to residents is likely to decrease, since jobs will be eliminated. Fewer staff will be expected to do more work. Fewer police will mean less police protection.

Sixth, despite assurances to the contrary, preserving the downtown is a less central interest to Township voters than it is to our Borough voters. Residents who live in the outlying areas have a suburban, necessarily auto-based lifestyle. Pressures to move facilities like the library, the Arts Center and the Dinky out of the downtown will increase.  

Consolidation is a one-way street; it is irreversible. Two-thirds of the commission's projected savings can be achieved without any need for consolidation at all by sharing the services of the police departments. This would not cause the serious losses to Borough residents that consolidation would cause.

Ireen Kudra-Miller

Hawthorne Avenue