Time to pay the piper
I watch the comments on the issue of the Bloomfield Township SAD and have to chuckle. Yea, chuckle.
No one wants their taxes to go up. Not one person. That said, there are issues the voters neglected for years.
Contracts were agreed to by both the employer and the employees. That includes the "elected officials" elected by the constituency of Bloomfield Township. Regardless of what any may want for the future, the contracts of the past need to be honored.
The voters should have been more aware of what was going on for years, i.e., neglecting to build up the funds to cover the retirement benefits for employees.
Now is not the time to be critical of the benefits that were negotiated and agreed to or past voting elected officials that made poor decisions. Now those decisions, like the chickens, have come home to roost.
The piper needs to be paid. The employees deserve the benefits agreed to and if necessary the residents need to dig into their pockets to come up with the payment. There can be plenty of conversations for the future. But the past needs to be honored.
That's the long and short of it. I can't cut the lease car payment because it is getting a little hefty. I ordered the appliances and furniture. I need to pay for those things. I, through the elected persons, agreed to the contracts including wages and benefits. I need to pay the bill.
Michael Wasielewski
Bloomfield Township