Local NJ Pension Hikes

Annual pension contributions for 2022 from local employers in New Jersey for the PERS and PFRS plans (due to be paid April 1, 2022) finally appeared on the state website last week based on the June 30, 2020 actuarial valuations. If Kenilworth is any measure the 2022 hikes are massive for the second straight year and explains why the democrats in charge embargoed these numbers until after their elections.

KBudget(5): Soft Costs Hit Hard

$79,230.50 was Paid or Charged for Engineering Services and Costs for 2020. However, billing records show that the borough engineer, Harbor Consultants, invoiced $297,700 in 2020 (see below). Where would that extra money be coming from?

About those soft costs:

KBudget(4): Paying to Fight Merck

The salary amount represents $2,999.17 paid each month to this guy:

As for the increase in Other Expenses:

Here is who we have fighting Merck and how much it means in taxes:

KBudget(3): Shared Tax Hikes

Governor Murphy’s prime (only) initiative to reduce property taxes is Shared Services. Here is how that worked out in Kenilworth for 2021:

If you’re counting that’s:

KBudget(2)-OASI

Here is some new (to me) information on the Social Security item for police.

Since we have payroll data from the pension spreadsheet as of March 31, 2021 here is what the employer portion of OASI should look like:

KBudget(1)-PFRS Bills

So starts this six-blog series on the 2021 Kenilworth budget with my question on pension bills. If you want to follow ahead the full Q&A (and slander) during the hearing is at the bottom of this blog.

Whereas in Union County this was the answer:

Muzzled: “Tired Of Hearing This BS Every Time”

In attempting to respond to a statement made by the Kenilworth mayor (which I found out recently was a reading of a tapinto piece dated July 30, 2021) I got a minute in before this happened:

Below is video of the mayor’s statement and my aborted response:

Slander: “That’s A Good Way To Get Rid Of Him”

Yesterdays’ Kenilworth council meeting is up on youtube. I will be unpacking my comments in several blogs over the weekend, mostly to do with questions I had on budget items but, to kick this off, after I was slandered, this is how borough attorney Frank Capece, reacted:

Polonium-210 might not have been readily available but, maybe next time.

Another “good way to get rid of” me came later in the evening and if you want to skip ahead the full youtube of the meeting is at bottom. For now this is the incident that precipitated Frank Capece’s comment:

Slandered and Muzzled

slander[ˈslandər]NOUNlaw

1. the action or crime of making a false spoken statement damaging to a person’s reputation.

That’s exactly what happened to me tonight at the Kenilworth council meeting but, rather than describe it, let’s all wait for the video to go up on the borough youtube channel, if it ever does.

Suffice it to say that the mayor read a critique of my mailer and then accused me of stalking her. I denied it but in my comment time was not allowed to finish my rebuttal (and also was not allowed to file a criminal complaint since the officer at the desk claimed it was a civil matter). Maybe so but, for the record, here is what I would have said in my defense if we had free speech in Kenilworth.

Insuring Bankruptcy

General Motors spends more on health care than steel. Kathleen Sebelius

Based on check registry data put into worksheets Kenilworth (and likely most municipalities in New Jersey) spend much more on insurance than politicians can steal.

Each of these rows has a story. Among the more interesting: