ROSE Referendum a 'Bad Decision for Bloomingdale,' Mayor Says

Mayor Jon Dunleavy tried to persuade council members one last time Tuesday to reconsider putting the possibility of reducing taxes collected under the borough's Recreation and Open Space Establishment (ROSE) Fund in the hands of voters on a November ballot.

Tuesday was the deadline for the borough to submit a new ballot question to Passaic County, but the council decided to keep the question that was approved at the last meeting.

During a special meeting Tuesday morning, the council discussed the ROSE Fund referendum. The resolution for the referendum was approved by the council at the Aug. 14 meeting split along party lines, with Democrats opposing it, according to Suburban Trends. The ballot question that was approved would ask voters if they want the rate collected lowered to 1.4 cents per $100 of assessed valuation from the current rate of 2.5 cents per $100 of assessed valuation.

While Dunleavy said the rate of the ROSE tax would be lowered if voters approve the referendum, the money currently taken from the fund for recreation and open space services would need to be taken from the general budget. Dunleavy said taxes would not be lowered, but the source they are taken from would be shifted instead.

The original consideration of amending the ROSE Fund tax rate was the idea of Councilwoman Linda Shortman at the July 24 meeting. Shortman said to lower the tax during years of economic hardship for residents and in cases such as this year, when . Democrat Councilmen John D'Amato and Ray Yazdi said Tuesday they would have preferred the range of "up to" 2.5 cents that Shortman originally proposed instead of asking voters if they want the rate lowered to 1.4 cents.

Dunleavy urged the council to rescind their vote for the referendum resolution Tuesday and said there could have been enough time to still get Shortman's original question on the ballot. He said he felt the council acted "in haste" in voting for the referendum at the last meeting. But Republican council members did not change their minds.

One reason Dunleavy did not think the ROSE tax should be lowered is because money could be used from the fund to pay back at least $1,600,000 of an $1,800,000 bond the borough took out for flood mitigation projects last year. The $80,000 down payment on the bond was also paid for out of the ROSE Fund and intended to be paid back through taxes collected through the fund. Several of the projects included in the bond relate to recreation, including work to be done by , so bond counsel determined the borough could pay down the debt from the fund. But if the tax is lowered, Dunleavy said there will not be enough money in the fund to do so.

"You will never have enough to pay off this bond," he said.

He also said he did not think the public knows "the whole picture" and while lowering taxes might seem like a good idea now, the money in the fund could be used to help with costs in the future. Shifting where the debt is paid back from to the general operating budget will still affect taxpayers as well, he said.

"They're not just deciding on the ROSE Fund, they're deciding on future expenses now having to be paid out of the current budget," he said.

Yazdi said if the voters approve lowering the ROSE tax, the borough will have to find a new way to compensate for the loss in revenue, which may lead to cuts.

"This will force our hand to make some unnatural moves next year," he said. "We will walk into a financial disaster next year."

But Councilman Mark Conklin said the borough should focus on reducing expenses overall and that the borough spends too much money.

"We've got to cut budgets. Every other town cuts budgets. All we do is spend money here," he said.

Yazdi began noting the areas in which the borough spends money, including the Department of Public Works and police department.

"Buy less bullets," Conklin said.

Later, when Yazdi said taxes would only be lowered by 10 percent if 100 percent of services were cut, Conklin said the borough would still have county and state police protection in the event those local services were cut in the Borough of Bloomingdale. Conklin also said the borough should be operating its budget so that the money used for the down payment on the bond could be paid back from the general operating budget if it needed to be.

"This town should be able to cut more than $82,000 out of its budget," he said.

While Conklin and Yazdi did not seem to agree on what services are costing the borough too much, Dunleavy said rescinding the resolution for the referendum should not be a political decision as much as a business decision. Councilman Glenn Schiffman remained quiet on the issue and Councilwoman Jo-Ann Pituch only said "I voted on it at the last council meeting and that's my decision."

The resolution could not be rescinded without a motion being made by one of the original supporters and none of the Republican council members motioned to rescind.

"This is a bad decision for Bloomingdale," Dunleavy said.

What do you think? Should the ROSE tax rate be lowered to 1.4 cents per $100 of assessed valuation or kept the same? Participate in our poll below and let us know your thoughts in the comments.