The Republican controlled Howell local government decided to increase taxes on residents by 5%. Just a few days ago, the Republican controlled Board of Education in Middletown decided to back away from their plan to close down three schools, cut 40 jobs, and increase school taxes by 3%.

The mayors of Howell and Middletown are Republicans, and their councils and other government positions have been held by Republicans for years now. Middletown Republican Mayor Tony Perry did nothing to influence the Republican board of education to back away from their fiscally irresponsible, anti-parent, teacher, student plan. Instead, he's too busy running for County Commissioner, while not doing his job as Mayor of Middletown, to serve in the best interest of the community. Howell Republican Mayor John Leggio, by comparison, champions the tax increase as proposed by the Howell Republican Township Council, and is stated to have defended the proposal based on this quote in the article that I'm showcasing in this post by Shore News Network.

"Mayor John Leggio defended the increase, arguing the township is operating with lean staffing levels and cannot delay financial adjustments without creating larger tax hikes in future years.
“This budget was worked on very hard,” Leggio said, warning against past practices of keeping taxes flat during election cycles only to force steeper increases later.”

Howell, and Middletown are, of course, municipalities of Monmouth County, and Monmouth County has been in complete Republican Control since 2011. The Monmouth County Government increased taxes on residents by 23 million last year, wasted nearly a million in taxpayer money towards a failed attempt to seize a private airport for Netflix, and the Republican Board of commissioners illegally raised their own wages by 3,000, while also illegally increasing the wages of Monmouth County Republican Party Boss, and Sheriff, Shaun Golden.

The Monmouth County Republican Party is not only fiscally irresponsible, unaccountable to the public, and pessimistic, but they're also corrupt, and they'll keep raising taxes on us, while giving themselves a bigger check as long as they stay in power. I say it's time for a change, not only in local government across the many municipalities in Monmouth County, but in Monmouth County as a whole.