So. Bruns. taxpayers riding into valley of debt

Let me paraphrase Tennyson. Into the valley of debt rode the taxpayers of South Brunswick.

Recently the South Brunswick Township Council passed a $49M budget, which they declared "difficult," but required deferring $1.3M in pension payments to be repaid beginning in 2012. This is spend now, pay later. It is the very approach to fiscal irresponsibility that precipitated the current recession. And yet our council chose to employ spend now pay later. This was not a good choice. Hopefully we can find the money in next year's budget to repay in full the amount we deferred.

That said, in looking back at last year's budget, we should be less eager in future budgets to use such a large portion of the available surplus. Had we not used so much of the surplus in last year's budget, we probably could have avoided having to use the pension deferral gimmick to close this year's budget gap and possibly avoided so many layoffs.
John G. O'Sullivan
Monmouth Junction section
of South Brunswick