(Blackwood, NJ) - Vowing to bring fiscal responsibility back to Gloucester Township, Dave Mayer, the Democratic Mayoral candidate and his running mates Frank Schmidt and Dan Hutchison today slammed Republican Mayor Cindy Rau-Hatton and Councilwoman Shelley Lovett for playing 'shell games' with employee pension benefits.
"It's unacceptable for Mayor Rau-Hatton and her Republican team to inflict more pain on our middle class, and put our town in greater fiscal danger by using a gimmick to balance the budget," said Dave Mayer. "Rau-Hatton has repeatedly increased town spending while failing to cut waste from the budget. Now they want to play more 'shell games' by deferring the towns pension instead of freezing wages and reducing government spending."
Last week Mayor Rau-Hatton and Councilwoman Lovett led the fight to defer Gloucester Township's pension payments, and Lovett voted for its passage.
"Mayor Rau-Hatton and Shelley Lovett essentially chose to kick the can down the road and balance the towns budget on the backs of our children," said Councilman Dan Hutchison. "It's a tried and failed policy that has exacerbated New Jersey's fiscal woes, but Rau-Hatton and Lovett don't seem to understand that. The only new ideas they're capable of are recycling old ones."
Schmidt said that this is another example why change is desperately needed in Gloucester Township. "Mayor Rau-Hatton has mismanaged our budget since day one. She raised spending by 16.2% and repeatedly raised taxes on the backs of our taxpayers," said Schmidt. "With Dave Mayer as our next mayor, we're going to put taxpayers first by slashing waste and bringing fiscal responsibility back to town hall. We're going to open up government and make it transparent so that our taxpayers can scrutinize every dollar we spend. Families throughout our town are cutting back to live within their means and we'll make sure our government does the same."