True to fashion during election season, Dumont Democratic Councilman Bob McQuade makes an appearance with a Letter-to-the-Editor in the October 1, 2008 issue of the Twin-Boro News. Except, this time, his letter raises some very interesting questions.
First, and most obvious, is who is doing his spinster writing since his indicted political boss, Joe Ferriero, has been a little handcuffed and tied up of late?
The second question gets a little more serious. Why is McQuade’s letter yet another example of his smoke and mirrors tactics deliberately designed to steer public opinion away from the fiscal abominations and ethical misdoings of our local Democratic officials? McQuade desperately continues the crusade to mislead the public. McQuade says that in 2005, as Finance Chairman, he suddenly “discovered that the borough owed over $1.4 million in bills to various vendors”. What he conveniently forgets to mention is that he was also the Finance Chairman in 2004. Not only was he the Finance Chairman, but his 2 fellow Council Democrats comprised the entire finance committee!
McQuade’s lapse of memory having been corrected, let’s raise the most serious of questions. Following McQuade’s roll as finance chairman in 2004, he claims to discover unpaid bills supposedly amounting to $1.4 million in his next year as Finance Chairman in 2005. Obviously, he was asleep during his 2004 watch. When he woke up, he realized that his nightmare was so scary that he had to blame others at all costs. I also use the word “supposedly” because every time it has been mentioned during their campaign seasons over the past 3 years, the amount seems to waiver significantly.
If the town had $1.4 million in unpaid bills following his role as Finance Chairman in 2004, he correctly points out that our town received $1.6 million dollars in state aid to cover them. While the $1.4 million may be dubious, his direct responsibility along with the $1.6 million received from the state is certainly without question.
Now, the $1.6 million that we received from the state clearly covered any supposed unpaid bills of $1.4 million. Did McQuade ever discover that the simple math here left our town with an extra $200,000? Why then did our taxes not go down?
The critical question then becomes ...
Why have our taxes skyrocketed almost 60% during the past 4 years under total Democratic control, especially since he points out that the state covered this $1.4 million with money to spare when they gave us $1.6 MILLION?
