Voters Concerned About Debt, Taxes

Joseph Galligan stood on his front steps in a T-shirt emblazoned with the smiling face of Ronald Reagan, discussing the state of things in West Deptford in the lead up to the election.

But he might as well have been wearing a Bill Clinton T-shirt instead of the Gipper, given the concerns that seem to be crossing party lines this year.

The township’s debt–$142 million, if you include water and sewer–and resulting taxes were the biggest thing on the minds of voters, both Democrat and Republican, in an informal sampling.

Galligan, for his part, said he sees West Deptford’s debt as being a direct result of poor management and the township living beyond its means.

“That whole fiasco with RiverWinds–I think it’s a great idea to build a community center, but the sort of creative way that they went to finance it fell apart,” he said.

And the payments looming on all those millions of dollars are something that concerns Galligan.

“I’m very debt-averse,” he said.

 A few blocks away from Galligan, Democrat Marie Hofbauer said she was worried about the reassessment completed this year, which bumped up her taxes, and what it’ll do to her next year.

Still working at age 70, Hofbauer saw the value of her house nearly double in the revaluation, and wondered if she’d be able to handle a big increase in her bills next year.

“If I quit working, am I going to be able to pay the taxes?” she said.

Her concerns over taxes were shared by fellow Democrat Dan Rossiter, who said the race is also about a shift in leadership.

“I’ve been ready for a change for a while,” he said. Not being able to vote directly for a mayor and seeing township committee members taking free benefits were two of the major concerns he cited in looking for that change.

And for Republican Rich Antczack, it’s a little bit of everything, from leadership to taxes to transparency in government.

“I think they’ve been there too long,” he said of the current committee. “You have to have checks and balances, and they don’t have any checks and balances–they do what they want when they want.”

That lack of checks and balances leads to poor decisions, if not outright misappropriation when it comes to taxes, Antczack said.

“It’s crazy; it’s literally crazy,” he said.

His solution to at least some of the township’s problems is to shine a brighter light on what’s going on at the municipal building, in the form of greater transparency and disclosure to West Deptford residents, preferably online.

“It should be on the township site,” he said.