Everyone complains about our high property taxes, but Plainfielders do not really pay more than people in most of the towns around us do. Of course, if our homes had the value of similar properties in nearby towns, and were assessed accordingly, we’d be paying through the nose. What seems more galling than the amount is what we get for that money.
Of every dollar we pay in property tax, only 59 cents is municipal. Another 15 cents goes to the County, and 26 cents to the school district. The County provides places where our garbage, leaves and recyclables go. It also pays for parks (two of which are here), social services, the courthouse (though not the courts), the jail, and a number of other things. Union County is not known for thrift, but our Council can’t do anything about that. Our County Manager until this month, George Devanney, is the nephew of Senator and Boss of Bosses, Ray Lesniak. Even if he has been a fine civil servant, in my book, any relative of a powerful politician should be deemed ineligible for any salaried public office.
As for the school district, if I said half of what I think of this, I would get more complaints than I did when I mentioned other, ummm, sensitive topics in recent blogs!! Suffice it to say, much of our citizenry regards the schools as simply unusable. Frankly I think the schools here are better than anyone gives them credit for, but perception is everything, and they don’t compete.
I believe that all New Jersey parents who don’t want to send their children to the local public schools should receive vouchers, which will pay for two-thirds of the actual tuition charged by private and parochial schools, charter schools, and those public schools in nearby towns willing to take our children on tuition. Put a ceiling on the amount charged so the schools don’t gouge, but there should be no other restriction on where this money can be used, beyond the school being accredited.
Around 85% of the Plainfield school budget actually comes from the State, since we are an “Abbott district”, but the budget is a topic for another time.
We often hear that if the more able or affluent students could go to non-public schools, or public schools outside their districts, it would be disastrous for the students left behind in their district public schools. My answer to that is that any particular parents, and their children, owe nothing to other parents, or other children. You don’t help A’s children by hurting B’s children.
It is my goal to put any and all subjects that people care about onto the table. I know I have already ruffled many feathers by my rather outspoken statements. These are things no one has talked about for years, but all that proves is that our current politicians are bent on ignoring the public. If something bothers a citizen, it is ipso facto a legitimate issue for public discussion. A vote for me on Nov. 8 is therefore a vote to take the lid off free speech and reexamination of every aspect of the City’s activities. Whether you are dissatisfied only about minor operational details, or seethe with discontent about whatever your issue is, you have been squelched for too long. Vote your conscience for a change.
Michelson's View 
Please share your views with the national Republican party, as it seems they have missed your point. Good luck
There is really no such thing as “the national Republican party”, and if there is, I will only go along with them when I agree with what they are trying to say or do. In fact, I could say the same thing about the New Jersey GOP. Leaders come and go from the thankless tasks involved in being in the organization, which are usually governed by a handful of elected officials and their cronies. The National, and New Jersey, Democratic party is much the same.
Some of our more liberal neighbors believe that the harshest imaginary portraits they can apply to the opposite party are true. Of course, it’s a two-way street. That is the definition of “ideologue”, in my book, and I will never be that way.