1. Who would?!?!?!?!?! We pay the highest taxes probably in the world and get nothing!!!!why should we pay more for bussing which will prob last a few months and then be told sorry…no bussing due to lack of funds! Its prob cheaper to pay private!

2. Unfortunately this isn’t the vote that counts!!!!!!!!! We need to come out strong and say enough of these senseless tax hikes.

3. What Michel Azara wants to do is to suck the blood out of every Lakewood resident.

4. The first year the money will go for bussing, the second year it will go to junk.

5. Passage looks pretty grim I’d say

6. When is the referendum?

7. All the tenants are going to vote for this since they don’t pay taxes. The tax payers need to show up with our no vote in big numbers. The senior community is the biggest No vote block that Lakewood has. The best we can hope for Is all the board members should resign since they are like rubber ducks sitting in a bath tub. Doing nothing.

8. There is a huge groundswell of outrage and opposition to what azzara is doing. If it can be channeled effectively if will have a real impact on our elected officials to stop treating lakewood like a stepchild.

9. #7

   Smart tenants also would vote no, if they realized how their rent will go up in tandem with hikes in taxes but no one ever said people are always smart.

10. Btw, tenants do indirectly pay taxes. When taxes go up so does their tent.

11. Such votes must require

    A)minimum turnout not just yes vs no

    B)only people with actual tax bill in their name may vote if not it is simply fraud

12. Correction a minimum % of taxpayers turnout

13. I never going trust BOE because they are messing my life by not providing buses for going home after school. They are playing game even the mayor doesn’t got busing for his kids shame BOE. What kind BOE is this in Lakewood ???

14. For most ppl in the well populated neighborhoods, it would be cheaper to arrange a car service or carpool than to each pay $300+/yr in taxes. I can’t imagine this referendum passing.

15. When my children went to Lakewood schools, the system was the envy of the state and offered programs for the highly gifted as well as challenged students. Its surplus ran in the millions. It had its own buses and an efficient pickup schedule. The people who have run the board of education over the past few decades have put other interests first and as a result the board is millions in debt and is the laughing stock of the state. Like it or not, the monitor is here to bring some type of fiscal sanity back to the board since the revolving group of present members can’t, or won’t do it themselves. The board hardly has enough monies to fund mandated programs. Read the papers, the State is broke also, the legislature is planning to raise all types of fees (taxes) next year to keep their favorite programs funded. As an example, the transportation fund was not only fully funded, but had a surplus in the millions, and the politicians raided it for other things and now it is broke and in debt. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? So there is no money coming from the State to any municipality to fund non-mandated programs.
    Courtesy busing is just that, a courtesy and the state monitor has given taxpayers a simple choice: If you want it vote yes and pay for it. If not, vote no.

16. JoeMoe good point but that is over the long hall. People have leases and just think in the short term. Especially if they have a bunch of kids which need the bussing. We need to go to the polls and vote no, otherwise you might be surprised and this may actually pass.

17. It s easy to fill out a survey online, its a different thing to actually go out and vote.

    PLEASE make sure that everyone in their family that can vote goes and votes NO.

18. And you can legally raise rent on a tenant beside for the 5% but also based on tax increases…

19. Rent is going down. There are too many available units

20. Not sure why anyone would portray this as a landlord vs tenant issue. A tenant that currently has school age kids will likely be a homeowner within the next 3-4 years, so they would be voting to give themselves a permanent tax increase too.

21. The problem is in Lakewood we think we could do everything ourselves. in monsey they have a similar problem and they got agudah and hikind and other higher up people involved. why cant we do the same? were are all our askanim in our town? our taxes for us small earners are already astronomical.

22. Is there any way to get mail in ballots for this election ?

23. Old Mans Fury This is not about being fiscally irresponsible, or about the state being broke.

    The fact is Jackson gets double the state aid as Lakewood with one 3rd the school age children. Toms River get 3 times the State aid with 8000 less children. The state is subsidizing school districts at over $6 billion a year, they should treat Lakewood fairly

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