Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Has Lotito Been Banned From The Patch?

It appears it only took two weeks for the folks at The Patch to realize Tom Lotito was bad for business. As of today it appears every one of his posted comments have been removed. To bad OT editor Phil Garber, who continues to publish Tom's incompetent weekly rants, didn't get the memo as well.

So much for "don't shoot me...I'm only the piano tuner"!

Thursday, October 14, 2010

State Investigation of Washington Township

According to a spokesman from the New Jersey Department of the Treasury, the state has begun an investigation into the validity of the Washinton Township Administrator's retirement.

Another "slim shady" Ken Short inspired deal that's costing taxpayer's tens of thousands of dollars.

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Can he get any dumber?

Instead of stepping outside of his sandbox and declaring the WTBOE should "close a school", Mayor Ken Short should focus his attention on the challenges before him with his own municipal budget. For starters, it would help if Short could once and for all understand the difference between the "tax levy" (the amount he is allowed to force taxpayers to pony up for his incompetence) vs. "spending" (the amount he and the rest of the Committee plan to appropriate).  There is a difference.  Why is it important?  Back in 2005, Short's sole focus on spending led to a $60K increase in the budget.  His inattention as to how he would pay for it ended up costing taxpayers a WHOPPING $1 MILLION EXTRA IN TAXES!

Questions for Jim LiaBraaten

Back when he ran for the WTBOE, Jim LiaBraaten raised eyebrows when refused answer to a question on what he would cut as a BOE member. His reply was "elect me first, and then I'll show you."

While Jim was successful in gaining a seat on the WTBOE, he was rejected when he ran for a seat on the high school BOE. I guess the saying "fool me once, shame on you...fool me twice, shame on me" applied!

Now Jim is running to keep his appointed seat on the Township Committee. At least this time he is taking bold stances, per a declaration he will not support a municipal budget that contains a tax levy increase exceeding the new 2% cap. Good for Jim! But this does raise a few questions. With a current municipal tax levy of about $10.8 million the cap allows about a $216K increase. So far we know there will be increases to pension and health benefits of at least $405K. In addition, there is a high possibility state aid will be less; and there won’t be close to $600K in one time revenues to count on next year. This all leads to a gap of about $800K to stay within the cap.

So the question for Jim LiaBraaten is simple, what does he plan to cut to deliver on his pledge? Voters' deserve to know BEFORE they go to the polls.

Friday, October 8, 2010

This Man is a Moron!

Just when you thought Mayor Ken Short couldn't be any more incompetent, he surprises his most skeptical critics with his latest ill-advised declaration - the BOE should close a school? This from a man who despite championing the community center for over 10 years, can't seem to muster the intelligence and initiative to put together a simple business plan on how it would be built, operated, and paid for? Yet now Short is an expert on the educational space needs of our school district? Since when is it the duty of a committeeman to make education policy? Who died and made Ken Short an expert on facility planning? The only thing Ken Short seems to be expert at is raising our taxes year after year and lying about it (via mailers) the weekend before he is up for reelection.

To give you an idea of where this is coming from, check out which one of Short's "Darkside" buddies was first to comment on the linked article referenced above.

Friday, October 1, 2010

Legality? Really Tom?

In a letter to the editor in yesterday’s OT, Tom Lotito moronically ponders the" legality" of a candidate choosing not to emphasize his party affiliation, as opposed to simply what he can do for our township.

Tom should save his "legality" lectures for his own household, starting with his son who recently appeared in juvenile court to answer charges of anonymously slandering his classmate(s) on the internet.