Comments

• On the article Community Outcry Prompts District to Cancel Principal Swap

  

  Adam Kraemer

  10:28 pm on Friday, May 17, 2013

  This is the way it should be the citizen and parents lead and put pressure on the BOE and Mr. O'Niel and good things happen.

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• On the article Ridgeway Park Proposed for St. Cloud Neighborhood

  

  Adam Kraemer

  8:42 am on Friday, May 17, 2013

  A significant percentage of the about 12 square miles that is West Orange is public space owned by the county or town, or state. This park will have start up costs and will have operational costs to be paid for by the taxpayers. Also the land will have no chance to become part of the tax base should it become a park. The main economic issue in this town is high governmental cost with a limited tax base particularly a limited commercial tax base to pay for it. Consideration to the true short and long term economic costs of this should be considered before we move forward with the park.

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• On the article Shop Local, Save Money on Taxes in West Orange

  

  

  Adam Kraemer

  10:15 pm on Sunday, May 12, 2013

  Kevin - Every one of the 22 municipalities in Essex County has a police chief, even tiny Essex Fells. This creates extra administration and does not truly help combat crime. One county force might be too big to effectively administer but we don't need 22 police chiefs and a sheriff. Eventually taxes in towns like West Caldwell and Livingston will get so high they will look to cost saving action like this. I would start with a unified count 911 dispatch for all of Essex County. I would save money and coordinate public safety activities among multiple agencies and thus improve public safety and reduce costs. Yes things can be done to reduce taxes and make government run smarter and better.

• On the article Shop Local, Save Money on Taxes in West Orange

  

  Adam Kraemer

  11:36 am on Sunday, May 12, 2013

  @ Kevin: It is not how much you make on the top line that matters so much as what flows down to the bottom line that counts. When local property taxes consume such a high percentage of family budgets in West Orange and in Essex County change need to be made. Yes any change will have some impact some place and not everyone will love all aspects of consolidation and budget cutting. However, cost the cost of doing nothing and letting property go up is that the middle class families who are are already in a precious economic spot in this town and county will be pushed out to an even greater extent then they are being pushed out now. Also we will loose our senior and grandparents will not be able to stick around near their grand kids. So I would argue radical reform to lower property taxes is needed and sacred cows have got to go.

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• On the article Shop Local, Save Money on Taxes in West Orange

  

  Adam Kraemer

  11:36 am on Sunday, May 12, 2013

  @ Kevin A unified police force for West Orange, Essex Fells, Roseland, the Cladwells, and Livingston would make a lot of sense and save some money with out impacting public safety

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• On the article Shop Local, Save Money on Taxes in West Orange

  

  Adam Kraemer

  9:20 pm on Thursday, May 9, 2013

  Cut spending: Eliminate counties we need towns or counties not both. Merge police and fire departments. Essex county need not 22 police chiefs, 22 fire chiefs and a sheriff. Merge schools. We don['t need more then 20 superintendents of schools in the county. End prevailing wage in public construction then every major public building project would be less. End public or strictly limit the power of public unions like Wisconsin did. Costs go down the public employees still do all right. Use vouchers and charter for helping students cost go down and educational quality goes up. Just a few ideas.

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• On the article Shop Local, Save Money on Taxes in West Orange

  

  Adam Kraemer

  8:45 am on Thursday, May 9, 2013

  Schools spend of $140 million for 7,000 students. Town spends about $75 million for about 46,000 residents. County spend about $750 million for about 750,000 residents. State spends about $33 billion for about 8 million residences. Property taxes is about 3.5% of home value, sales tax is 7% to income tax in NJ is 8.9 %. We also has corporate gross receipts taxes, gas taxes, tobacco tax, lottery (tax on people with bad math skills) a death tax that can be up to 24% and many other taxes and fees. If the layers of local and state government spent less they could tax less. Then the people and business would have more money to shop and build the business and we all do better and would not need the silly rebate thing. Also less silly rules on every thing from zoning, signs, hours open limits and so forth hold back business from being as good as they can be.

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• On the Blog Post School Vouchers Are Bad Medicine

  

  Adam Kraemer

  6:39 pm on Wednesday, May 8, 2013

  Milton Friedman got it right about vouchers decades ago. Too bad it has not been implemented the way he suggested. So we over pay as tax payers and give the wealthy options to move to high performing public school districts or privet schools and give the poor limited options and bad choices to choose from. I respectfully could not disagree more with what Mr. Synder is stipulating too.

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• On the article Shop Local, Save Money on Taxes in West Orange

  

  Adam Kraemer

  8:47 am on Wednesday, May 8, 2013

  Shopping locally can be a good thing. However, would it not be better to just keep property taxes reasonable in the first place to avoid this pay and rebate stuff. If taxes on business were lower maybe they could do better and not need the rebate things. The approximately $200,000 per year in property taxes charged is a significant factor (not the only factor) as to Pals Cabin going out of business. I would prefer that the state, county, town, and school board focus on controlling spending in the fist place and reducing local regulations so business could do well. This respectively is just a gamesmanship by our local politicians.

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• On the Blog Post Embedded in the West Orange Schools

  

  Adam Kraemer

  7:21 pm on Sunday, May 5, 2013

  Just a suggestion for better schools and better use of my tax dollars: Less focus on public relations and more time and task and focus for academics. Taxes in West Orange which are most for schools can safely be called confiscatory. Spend those dollars on teaching reading, writing, math, and helping prepare the next generation to succeed. Hearing about nice programs is good but I would be happy to have it quietly spent on strong academics and student time on task. It that was going on test score might go up school spending might be less and people would be happy with the public schools and the schools would have less need for P.R. (Just a thought)

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