Tom Haralampoudis, a Madison Borough Council candidate, forwarded the following letter to the editor:
A major responsibility of a councilor is to be a good steward of your hard earned property tax dollars. In 2020, Madison taxpayers paid approximately $ 66.8 million combined: $ 13.6 million for our city, $ 43.2 million for our school system, and $ 10.1 million for the county .
Madison is fortunate to have dedicated professionals, many of whom I have worked with with nearly three decades of volunteering in the city. I have no doubt that the cooperation between the city council and city authorities will continue to accomplish our mission to provide great service. However, I am equally sure that we can do better. And as with so many things, the pandemic will force some of these changes. Tax revenues are expected to decline this year, and there are other potential shortfalls ahead. Elected leaders need to be proactive and effective.
If I am elected, I will work to find more opportunities for mutual service. Much good work and planning has been done between the city and the Education Council to find ways to save, but there is certainly more to come. Even the New Jersey state government, seeing the need to help the state’s 565 communities, has dedicated staff and funding to support the process of identifying and implementing savings through shared services.
A sensible policy would be to insist that the agencies proactively come up with ideas on how the services – or equipment – can be shared with other departments or, in some cases, with other cities, or why this should not be the case, when requesting funding.
As I mentioned elsewhere, there is an immense untapped talent pool in Madison who is happy to volunteer for ideas on how to implement those talents when prompted. I know because I’ve lived it. I will seek her to help wherever her expertise intersects with the needs of the city.
After all, we can use technologies that the city must already make as transparent as possible about our efforts. Proposals to save through shared services, whether from city workers or citizens, can be logged, published and tracked so residents know that we are good stewards of our resources and are using all possible means to raise money to save.
There are no easy solutions to the budget challenges ahead. Big breakthroughs are rarely obvious or easy. However, improvement is possible when leaders have demonstrated financial acumen and experience working together with various skills to solve problems. It’s what I call common sense for the common good. I respectfully ask you to vote on Tuesday June 8th.
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