A Passaic County Democratic freeholder admitted last Thursday night that the freeholder board is misusing the $5 million a year open space and recreation trust fund, said Freeholder candidate Frank Pietropaolo, who said the trust fund has turned into a slush fund.

At the New Jersey League of Women Voters freeholder debate held in Wayne on Thursday evening Freeholder John Bartlett said about half of the money ($2.5 million) that the county takes in under what is euphemistically called the open space tax goes not to open space at all – but to maintenance of county parks.

“Park maintenance and upkeep costs should come out of the general budget. But the Democrats are disguising their yearly tax hikes by taking money from the trust fund to hide their true spending,” he added. “if the money for routine park maintenance was in the budget, the freeholders would be forced to cut spending elsewhere. But they don’t want to cut spending anywhere

Pietropaolo also pointed out that more than $300,000 a year is taken from the open space and recreation fund to pay for the salaries and uniforms for park rangers – and for other items that have nothing to do with open space preservation.

Most of the fund’s money is granted back to the municipalities for recreation-related projects that could be done better and cheaper by the municipalities, says Pietropaolo. The grants rarely cover the full cost of any municipal project, which means more taxpayer money has to be used for local recreation.

“The open space fund has become a slush fund. The Democrats are not using the money to buy and protect open space, which how taxpayers think their money is being spent,” said Pietropaolo who noted that not a single dollar was spent on an open space purchase in at least two years.

A NEW REFERENDUM

Pietropaolo is advocating to put a referendum on the ballot asking taxpayers if they want to continue to pay into a fund that over more than two decades has become a recreation tax that robs municipalities of money they could better use themselves. The initial referendum creating the trust fund was voted on in 1996. After 22 years, says Pietropaolo, voters should have the right to examine how their money is being used and whether they want to continue to pay the tax.

“There are homeowners today who have no idea why they are paying this tax and where the money goes,” said the candidate.

Pietropaolo notes that Wayne and Clifton pay $1 million a year each into the recreation fund, but rarely get more than 20 percent of that money back for municipal recreation projects.

“I think the officials of Wayne and Clifton – and every other town in the county – are better equipped to spend their recreation money than the county is,” said Pietropaolo

“If I am elected freeholder I will disclose to the public how the county has been using the recreation tax and I will work to put a referendum on the ballot asking voters if they want to continue to pay $5 million a year to the county for what is essentially a tax on recreation, or if they want that money back in their own pockets.”