South Toms River - GOP Mayor George Greitz, campaigning for re-election, had the brass to tell South Toms River residents: "We know how hard it is for working families to make ends meet; that's why we'll fight to restore fiscal responsibility by finding better, smarter and more efficient ways of running municipal government."

Greitz Promised To "Lower Property Taxes"

Greitz had already been Mayor for five years when he made this claim. The "we" was himself and Councilmen Sanford Ross and William McCormack, Republican Councilman running for election on a platform of "lower property taxes."

In the same piece of campaign propaganda, Greitz deplored the fact that property taxes had "skyrocketed 15% in the previous two years," but didn't elaborate, perhaps because he was the mayor through the entire period.

Greitz' Campaign Lies Have Caught Up With Him
STR Tax Increase Is The Largest Ever In Ocean County

Now the proverbial chickens have come home to roost, and Greitz' campaign lies have caught up with him in the form of the largest local property tax increase in the history of Ocean County municipalities.

Greitz Local Tax Increase Is More Than 25% this Year

The tax increase is more than 25%, and represents the increase for the municipal budget alone; the school tax actually went down in South Toms River this year. So did the county tax rate; so  did the tax for the health board.

31¢ on every $100 Of Assessed Valuation, $300 On The Typical Home

The increase, brought about partly as a result of the failure, during Greitz' entire tenure, to make any attempt to expand the tax base in South Toms River, is 31¢ on every $100 of assessed valuation, $300 on the typical home in a town where the average family income is only marginally above the poverty level.

Grotesque Incompetence?

Other causes are an almost grotesque incompetence on the part of the South Toms River governing body (Councilman Abe Rodriquez, for instance, is already on the OCP list of Worst Public Officials) It is arguably the worst and most pathetic collection of bad public officials in New Jersey.

Greitz: Chief Perp And Primary Co-Conspirator In Huge Tax Increase

But Greitz, as the Mayor, has to take most of the heat as the chief culprit and primary co-conspirator in the drive to make South Toms River the laughing stock of the Garden State when it comes to ineptitude and  pure bad manners.

Greitz is not dumb, at least in the abstract sense, so he must have known the claptrap he was feeding the public in his campaign literature was exactly opposite from the real truth.

For Those With Stout Hearts, Public Hearing Is 7pm On Monday

In any  event, if you have sufficient patience to hear Greitz and Rodriguez and Ross and McCormack and Paden and the others invent even more extreme lies to explain away the huge tax increase without implicating themselves, you can attend the public hearing which is scheduled for the council chamber of horrors on Mill Street at 7pm on Monday, April 19th which, if you read this article on the right day, is tomorrow night or even tonight.

The enormous tax increase has caused the OCP editorial board to move up intense consideration of additions to the Top Ten Worst public Officials nominations list, so we'll soon begin accepting recommendations from our readers.

But Greitz is almost a sure thing. Councilwoman Karen Paden, passer of bad checks, property tax delinquent ($11,000) and sponsor of the recent South Main Street fecal coliform health menace, is not likely to make the list of nominations this year, because she hasn't been on the council long enough to be eligible.

This article prepared for publication 04/17/04

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