Reader sounds off on mayor, town budget

I'm glad to see other people are sick of Art Sholty. The man is a pest. If you want to quote the Bible, stay in church and out of the paper.

This man's love of Acropolis is so bad that the mayor needs to put stoplights on his backside so Art doesn't get stuck you know where.

What happened to our tax buster council? Oh yeah, they're in Steve's hip pocket.

I can't believe this budget increase of 9.6 cents plus they only took $100,000 off the school budget. Our wonderful mayor comes up with a budget increase of 9.6 cents and blames the state for it being late. Then our so-called tax buster council passes it without a second look. What a joke.

Our wonderful council closed their eyes and passed the budget with no questions asked. Why let the people vote on the school budget if it doesn't matter anyway? Why does the school need more money this year if enrollment is down? Wouldn't it mean that you need less money?

For the council to only take $100,000 off the school budget was a slap in the face to taxpayers. Why did the council cut the budget down every year but this one? Is this maybe payback for the Ice Palace? I find it funny how the budget wasn't started until after the Ice Palace deal.

Our council has been a big joke. They seem to work only for Steve and not the people of Brick. There is no guarantee the Ice Palace would have made money, just like there's no guarantee the Foodtown site will ever sell. I know Steve says 100 people are interested. If that's so, why isn't it sold?

They say it has a lot to do with pensions and raises. The average employee got a very small raise while the top level got a big raise. Pensions most likely went up because those who were able to retire did rather than work for Steve, like the police chief.

There are plenty of ways to cut spending — you just have to look. Why do we need so many police cars? They're never all used at the same time. We buy 10 new ones at $30,000 each every year. Why can't the police share the same car? Between gas, insurance, repairs and the cost to buy new ones, that's a big chunk of the budget.

Why not have all town employees, including cops and teachers, chip in for health benefits and make a mandatory retirement age for teachers and town employees. Stop making new positions like the two new assistants to the assistant positions Steve just made. These new assistants each make $100,000 a year. Funny, huh.

I'm sure we'll find out there's some sort of tie to the Republicans or a friend of the mayor or council and most likely won't have any qualifications to do the job. Sorry, Frank Pannucci. A college degree of any kind doesn't cut it for me. If you need help doing your job — with or without a degree — you're not qualified.

I would like to see a recall on the mayor and his council. Would anyone want to start a petition? Bet we could get enough people to sign.

Dave Desiderio

Brick