Budget cuts should come first
Recent reports in the Sentinel have again highlighted the reality gap between government and the people they govern. While Mayor Jun Choi is positioning a massive three-year tax increase as "fiscal responsibility," the Edison school board is congratulating themselves over raising taxes only "$88 per household this year."

I applaud the mayor's efforts to bring revenues and expenditures in line and acknowledge that a small number of tough choices were made in the recent budget proposal. He is also correct in observing that it will require tough contract negotiations with municipal employees to bring costs in line for the long run. However, the magnitude of spending cuts is dwarfed by tax increases. This balance should be reversed. Cuts should come before revenue increases to bring reality to what is truly a necessary expenditure.

If the mayor is on the border of reality, the school board is in Oz. Edison voters have rejected the last two budgets. That is a pretty clear message. The township responded by requiring tiny budget reductions. The school board responded not by spending cuts, but by raising fees for the use of school buildings - the same school buildings that the citizens paid to build and pay to run. They then sent their former superintendent on a taxpayerfinanced, three-year, $450,000 vacation and refuse to answer questions about the decision. And, alas, they are back, asking again for a massive capital expenditure program and a, yet again, larger budget, that raises taxes "only $88." How about cuts?

New Jersey residents carry among the highest tax burdens in the country. It is no wonder that the state's economic and population growth trails U.S. averages.

Richard J. Leist

Edison