Taxpayers get tapped for the gas

Over two months ago, the Bulletin called for the Township Council to eliminate an ordinance created when Democrat Mayor Joseph C. Scarpelli was council president, which allows Planning and Zoning Board members to get paid.

That ordinance was amended in the late 1990s when Republican Helen Fayad was council president to give those same board members annual raises. Incidentally, Fayad sat on the Planning Board at the time.

The council has not acted.

Township Councilman Stephen C. Acropolis said the council would more likely consider rescinding the stipend "if there was a human cry. If there were people saying we don't think people should be paid to do this ...," then the council would look at revoking the pay.

No one has complained, Acropolis said.

Board members say the $51 a meeting is a nominal amount for the up to six hours a night they spend deliberating development and redevelopment every week.

With gas prices the way they are, board members have a valid argument when they say the money they earn per meeting, peanuts really, pays for the gas it takes to visit a site. Board members also don't get paid if they don't show up for the meeting.

But when you take into consideration that board appointments are usually political appointments that are kept secret until the night of the vote, and that board members in other towns don't have their gas paid for by taxpayers, it just doesn't seem so fair.

Maybe if Brick taxpayers weren't slapped with a 6-cent tax increase this year and a revaluation next year accompanied by a lot of shoulder-shrugging politicians, it would be understandable that board members are allocated a total of $60,000 a year in taxpayer money to fill their gas tanks.

Some board members said they were surprised when they were appointed to one of the township's land-regulating boards and started receiving a small paycheck for their services. So those members probably won't have a problem if those paychecks stopped coming.

Board of Education members are unpaid, yet there doesn't seem to be a lack of candidates running for the school board.

It seems whenever government officials don't want to spend the money on something, it's because the "money's not in the budget." Whenever they want to seemingly throw money out the window, it's "a nominal amount." Is $60,000 so nominal? If the township doesn't need that $60,000, maybe it could send it on over to the school district and hire back some of the special education aides the district laid off this year.

Or why not literally throw the money out of town hall's windows? Some poor schlub coming in to pay her tax bill could surely use the money to fill her gas tank.