In what has to be his biggest and most egregious LIE to date, Mayor Ken Short allowed the Morris County Republican Committee to send out this mailer claiming he held "average tax increases to less than 2% per year."Nothing could be further from the truth as listed below are the exact municipal tax increases Ken Short voted in favor of during his 9 years in office, based on tax rates provided by the Morris County Board of Taxation. In addition, the accuracy of these percentages and the overall 2001-2009 average tax increase has been confirmed by Township CFO Kevin Lifer.
2009 - 3.85%
2008 - 2.34%
2007 - 3.51%
2006 - 4.43%
2005 - 11.1%
2004 - 0.86%
2003 - 2.66%
2002 - -0.22%
2001 - 2.96%
It doesn't take rocket science to sum these percentages, divide by nine and realize the average is 3.50% or 75% higher than the 2% average stated in the mailer.
These figures do not include the municipal open space tax which has its own unique tax rate. If municipal open space taxes are taken into account, the average annual combined municipal tax increase is 3.4%.
I have sent Mayor Ken Short copies of the CERTIFICATION SCHEDULE OF THE GENERAL TAX RATE via his township email address for the years 2001 to 2008. I have also sent him a copy of a MS Excel spreadsheet containing the tax rates. This way Short can’t make his usual “I don’t have the figures in front of me" excuse. Mayor Short has all the information he needs before him to come clean on this false "average tax increases to less than 2% per year" claim.
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