Democrat-run Gloucester County says it’s freezing spending ahead of this November’s control election, but Republicans are pointing out that this week’s announcement is too good to believe.
“Suddenly the Democrats on the Board of Commissioners expect the hard-working taxpayer of Gloucester County to believe they are concerned with spending. The truth is they have the same polling number we have and know they are in trouble in November,” said Gloucester County Republican Chairwoman Jacci Vigilante after Wednesday’s voted by the Board of Commissioners.
GOP candidate Nick DeSilvio and Chris Konawel won their party’s first commissioner seats in a decade last fall, and the Republican candidate for sheriff was also successful. Gloucester Republicans have an opportunity to flip control of the county this fall for the first time since the 1980s.
While the county board (which is now 5-2 Democrat) is alleging a history of making cuts, the county’s top Republican says it’s a shell game.
“If the Democrats were truly concerned about saving money, they would not be spending $740,000 for ‘community outreach’ which is really nothing more than a way to get the names of Commissioners DiMarco and DiCarlo hand delivered to voters’ front doors,” Vigilante added. “The hiring of a new deputy business administrator at six figures would not have been approved. And, they didn’t care about a spending freeze when the budget was passed only a few months ago, when Commissioners DeSilvio and Konawel were pushing for greater relief to taxpayers. To make matters worse, the passing of this resolution was obviously pre-arranged, given the fact a press conference announcing the spending freeze was hastily called only two hours before the Commissioners meeting. They even went so far as to lock the Republican Commissioner’s aides out of the press conference.”
“When Commissioners Konawel and DeSilvio raised their concerns the County Business Administrator and the Commissioner-Director both stated, on the record, that the resolution is non-binding, which means this spending freeze is nothing more than a desperate election year stunt,” Vigilante continued. “I’m proud of our Commissioners for recognizing this stunt for what it is, election season smoke and mirrors, and voting no. After Republicans win in November taxpayers will then see real savings.”
