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Slogan
Small "d" democracy "first"!
There are several reasons I am seeking the Ward 2 Council Seat in Old Bridge NJ.
First, I have seen the Republican leaders in OB use town assets to sue Murphy to favor Trump’s national immigration policy. We need to stop that kind of thing. Immigration is not an OB issue. They told us the law suit would not cost OB anything. I do not believe in something for nothing. More on this later.
I wish to end OB supporting Trump in any way. Supporting him seems to be leading to a fascist state. The US has always thrived with legal immigration bringing in the talent we need.
I do not believe Trump is a successful businessman. Despite Trump starting out with a huge amount of money from his parents, AND having been found guilty of Insurance Fraud he managed many bankruptcies. His felony conviction does not add confidence in his judgement. Nor does the judgement against him by E Jean Carol.
In 1980 our OB property taxes were about $1500. per year. Now, in the same home we pay roughly $1000 a month. That is a massive increase. In the early eighties the OB chief of police called on citizens that the mayor was likely up to “no-good”. I wonder if developers costs are being passed onto OB citizens.
The massive warehouse development passed by OB Republicans has many problems. Too much of anything is not good. This development agreement allows a 30 year PILOT plan. That means Payment In Lieu Of Taxes. The 30 year long PILOT term is unheard of and excessive. PILOT payments do not require funds be distributed to specific town functions like normal income would. This leads to far too much discretion on the part of the town council. Massive warehousing will add to existing traffic congestionon Rte 9. Since trucks pollute far more than cars. This will likely cause asthma to local residents. The promise of correcting the traffic problems may be too little and will certainly be too late.
In order to fix a problem you have to know what the problem is.
So, a good start would be to compare what other towns spend on similar programs.
In some cases a solution may be counter-intuitive. For instance OB spends a lot on special ed.
Camp Robin is nice, but it is attracting even more special ed kids to live in OB. So…Instead of cutting the program, why not enlarge it to benefit from an economy of scale. We can admit kids from other towns letting them pay less than what they would be paying for their a small number of kids, but their payment would be more than what it costs OB to efficiently run the special ed program. Thereby reducing OB costs.
Sharing of expensive equipment with other towns wold also be wise.
I also believe other towns with property on Raritan Bay make good use of their waterfront. I wonder if OB could make a program to use the bay. Perhaps a “community boating organization”. That might be run , on the cheap, by business students and possibly financed by I-Boat.
I do believe we need to make sure OB will control regular development to match our facilities.
It seems the Republican controlled council has been bowing down to developers. When I moved into a building in South Amboy the town was in charge, not me.
I believe disagreements are inevitable.
Of course listening to both sides is mandatory.
Perhaps a referendum during an election would be the least unfair. Judging every solution for the long term is usually the best solution.
Whether my seat on the council would directly be in contact with ICE is less important than what policy I would support.
OB can not fight the National Guard or even the ICE.
but we don't need to offer up some immigrant situations.
It took me a long time to accept the language : un-documented, as opposed to illegal immigrant. I have learned from experience on the boards of directors that different situations that need to be judged individually. One standard is convenient but difficult to perfect..
I would support Obama’s dreamers to be allowed to stay. Not allowing them would be similar to doing what NAZI’s did. Dreamers may not have been born in the US but they probably know no other country. Certainly I support birth right citizenship, that’s in the Constitution.
Legal immigration can help OB by bringing immigrants that fill gaps our economy needs.
I believe OB should advise ICE if there are serious infractions of the law. for instance DUI or a felony. I do not believe we should actively aid ICE for a law-biding productive member of our society. I believe we can certainly overlook a parking ticket or a marginal speeding ticket. .
With AI and robotics reducing jobs we must limit new immigration to what we need.
Perhaps we can create an OB committee of members of the council or beyond to judge each case that appears one by one. I would not support the OB police to automatically search for un-documented immigrants or people with an accent. That is against the US constitution.
I see the big problem for the whole country is our scary descent into an authoritarian society. This problem is not solely one for OB or directly related to just OB.
I would like to make sure OB government is not used to further the descent. I am a small "d" democrat.
