Its Friday April 9

In other news, the Oar House officially changed owners this past Tuesday. Word has it that the city held up the switch and the bank almost bailed on the deal. Man that would have sucked having an abandoned business. I saw a "For Rent sign where Isabelle's shop had been for 4 years. It was a feat to stay open that long. It is certernly a void on High Street. At least she is still around at the Artist Consortium. That has been a godsend during this recession which I hear is ending. Ummm... Well, the Arts District is in general is working to promote itself dispite UEZ funding being frozen by the Governor. As reported in the Daily Journal today, Kim Ayers urged MDC members to keep working.

"There may not be a lot of money but we can still have events to get people down town," Ayres said.
Ayres also said there are organizations that are setting up new foundations to help art districts such as Millville. The board will apply for grants for operations, she said.
Ayres encouraged her colleagues not to dwell on the current financing issues and to go back to the district's more humble roots when it was established 10 years ago.
"I want to get working again," she said. "We did that in the beginning and we can do that again."

I had an interesting chat on Facebook with a person I engaged with on the Daily Journal forums. It was an hour long and we discussed taxes, and other local topics. We have disagreed stongly about the direction the city has taken yet it was a mature discussion. Its a positive step to be engaged but remain civil. I mean the state is going to reduce its funding to local govts and then will propose to cut the funding AGAIN if the local govt taxes more then 4%. The proposed state cuts are much more then a mere 4% As reported in the News of Cumberland County today, the League of Municipalities said this about the proposal:

"It's absurd," said Jon Moran, a legislative analyst with the New Jersey League of Municipalities. "It's really an abuse of power." The league, which advocates for municipal interests, sent a letter to the Legislature objecting to the proposal, pointing out the law said the state should be a "full partner" in making sure the "full burden of providing necessary services does not fall on property taxpayers."

Trenton, we have a problem here!! The citizens who complain about their taxes will see what happens when services are cut such a no leaf pick up and no summer events.So if a town raised taxes $1 million to make up for a $1 million loss of aid, the state would go back and take another $1 million away from the town.
The budget includes $1.46 billion in aid to municipalities and $10.3 billion in aid to school districts to help keep property taxes down, but that's $445 million less in municipal aid and about $820 million less in school aid than last year. That is alot of taxpayer money. Will we see a reduction of our state taxes if this budget passes intact?? I think not
Meanwhile Millville is having a CLEARENCE sale on land that is essentually worthless since its either too small to build on or near wetlands. This is to find more revenue. I know that Millville First has been urging the city to sell and in this recession EVERYTHING MUST GO! In the AC Press, Mayor Tim Shannon said of this sale

"We're looking to unload a lot of land," If we can generate a little bit of revenue to help with our layoff plan, that's fantastic."

I am not sure much will happen. Lets say I want to buy a SMALL chunck of land for lets say $200, then I would have to pay an additional $400 in fees. Maybe the city ought to discount the fees to get this land to sell. We might take a road trip to Kennett Squire or Germantown. This weather is great for crusing and visiting other places.
Well, I am going to catch up on the Facebook now