THIS BUDGET STORY’S A SCARY ONE FOR EVESHAM TAXPAYERS

"For Evesham Township taxpayers, the municipal budget adopted by the

Council last night comes right from the pages of a Stephen King novel,"

Burlington County Republican Chairman Bill Layton said today.

            "The property tax rate is up a devastating 27 per cent while the amount of be raised by taxes is increased by a punishing $4 million-plus," Layton said. "The average taxpayer in the community will be forced to shell out another

$220 a year in local purpose property taxes, breaking the $1,000

barrier."

            "For Evesham taxpayers, the budget is a horror story brought to them

by Councilman and Democrat candidate for Freeholder Chris Brown and

his Democrat colleagues," Layton said. "Unfortunately, unlike Stephen

King's works, it's not a novel.  It's real and it costs very real

money."

            Layton noted that Brown “ducked responsibility for this tax and spend fiasco by conveniently voting ‘no.’  Yet it was he and his Democrat cronies on Council that crafted this very same plan, violating his own promise to cut taxes and spending.

            "The failure of the Council to control spending led to it being

forced to seek a waiver from the state to exceed the statutory four

percent cap on property tax rate increases," Layton said.

            Contrast the sorry record in Evesham with the fiscal responsibility

and spending restraint imposed by the Republican Board of Freeholders, which reduced both the county tax rate (for the 18th year in a row) and the actual amount of tax dollars needed to run county government.

            "Clearly, Chris Brown has failed to grasp the critical need for

government to control spending at a time of economic distress for so

many people," Layton said.   "His views on budgeting are totally at odds

with those of the Republicans on the Freeholder Board, not to mention

those of the taxpayers of Burlington County."