Council Candidate: Governing Body 'Owns' Responsibility for Town Budgeting

The following letter was submitted by Toms River Township Council Ward 2 candidate Paul C. Brush. All candidates are welcome to submit letters to Patch that will be published in the lead up to the November election. 

Dear Editor,

As I prepare for my campaign for town council in Ward 2 this November, I will not sit back and let our mayor and council members again spread misinformation about my four years as mayor of Toms River and the tax increases that the council alone has imposed over the past ten years.  

The Toms River Council has sole authority to approve the budget and raise or lower taxes. It is their single most important function as told to us on Dec. 4, 2003, when Rutgers Professor Emeritus Ernest Reock came to a town hall meeting and spoke about our new form of government.

Ten years ago, I had the honor of being the first directly elected mayor of Toms River. Unlike the governor, I did not have veto power over the council’s budget. Like you, I was stuck with whatever they approved. The council alone can increase or decrease the budget, and here is the simple truth, the council alone votes on the budget and signs the budget. They own it and they should accept responsibility for their actions.  

Mayor Thomas Kelaher has publicly supported every budget since he was elected in 2007 and my opponent, Councilman Brian Kubiel, has never spoken publicly against the all-Republican council’s budgets and tax increases since he was elected in 2003.

No profiles in courage there from either of these politicians. I am proud of my public service to our community, and honored for the opportunity that very few of us ever get.  

In November, I ask for your support for council in Ward 2 and for Linda Stevens in Ward 1, Gary Clifton in Ward 3 and Eli Eytan in Ward 4. Restore the trust! 

Thank you.

Paul C. Brush