SHORT ENDORSES WALSH, GRENAFEGE

PRESS RELEASE

For Immediate Publication

October 26, 2008

SHORT ENDORSES WALSH, GRENAFEGE

MIDDLETOWN TOWNSHIP (MONMOUTH COUNTY, NJ): More than two years ago, Middletown Committeeman Patrick Short was elected to the governing body with a mission.

“Government cannot be about politicians—it has to be about the residents of Middletown,” Short said.

Short said this is the reason he joined the Middletown Democratic Party. “Every single campaign promise I have made to residents I kept and intend to keep into the future. I am convinced this township can do better with Pat Walsh and Jim Grenafege on our governing body,” Short said.

Short said Walsh and Grenafege foster and embrace the same ideals as Short and fellow Committeeman Sean Byrnes, also a Democrat.

“This township can save money through controlling costs and turn back the tide of fiscal irresponsibility,” Short said. “The committee needs to know everything about what is bought and have more control over how it is bought.”

Short said that debt has traveled from $65 million three years ago in Middletown to almost $85 million today. “A public debt is a public curse, first of all,” Short said. “When it involves $85 million, this binds the township to $8.5 million in annual obligations, and Middletown can do a lot better,” he said.

Short said the committee needed $2 million last year to avoid a tax increase, and just $1 million the year before. “More has to be done to save taxpayers money and I think Pat Walsh and Jim Grenafege will do the work to make that happen,” Short said.

Short said that himself, Byrnes, Walsh and Grenafege would make an effective team that the taxpayers could trust.

Last year, Short and Byrnes reviewed 280 line items within the budget, making recommendations to each about how to reduce the budget. “Nothing was listened to by the Republican majority,” he said.

On top of that, Short said he and Byrnes made 34 general recommendations about how to curb spending, some of which have been adopted by the county but not in Middletown under the Republican majority on the committee.

Instead, Short said the majority on the committee raised taxes 7.5 percent, and the sum over the past three years has been  an increase of more than 15 percent.

“I know that Pat Walsh, Jim Grenafege, Sean Byrnes and myself can provides the leadership and strong objectives needed to reduce the budget,” Short said. The committeeman, who is also a senior manager for a Fortune 500 company, said the addition of Walsh and Grenafege to the committee would be the difference, short- and long-term, between Middletown “winning or losing in this economy.”