Teaneck is in mourning over the imminent loss of our beloved Bischoff’s. Most of us are stocking up on pumpkin fudge and coffee chip ice cream, hot fudge sauce and homemade whipped cream, and wondering if we and our neighbors could have spent more time and money to help sustain it.
So many residents went through the same pain when the legendary Louie’s, the Cedar Lane Diner, and Classic Quiche closed.
Before the Covid pandemic, Teaneck residents quite cheerfully paid their high property taxes, carefully putting aside their discretionary income (the money remaining after their taxes are paid) for rent, utilities, gas – and those treats offered by our local businesses like The Golden Grill, Bischoff’s, Mortgage Apple Cakes, Vitale’s and the fresh bagel shops.
We repeatedly were told by our Council that they were helping us by presenting a 0%-increase budget year after year. But most of us were wiser. We saw that our governing body was borrowing money and increasing our debt; we knew many of our friends and neighbors who were first responders would be retiring and were owed pensions and payment for saved sick and vacation days; we remembered that in the past many of the first responders retired with as much as $250,000 due them.
We knew, but we engaged in “magical thinking” encouraged by our Council, that somehow the future would take care of itself; that somewhere the hundreds of thousands of dollars for retirements and paying the increasing interest on the town’s increasing debts would have to be found.
Then the pandemic hit. We were afraid to go out to eat, to purchase food that some human hands might have touched. But our small business neighbors did all they could to sustain themselves and to help us enjoy a few goodies in the gloomy times we were enduring – gloved and masked, they carried food out to us on the sidewalk or in our cars; they engaged delivery services.
We are – more or less – emerging from the pandemic, but our town’s small businesses are having a harder time. We’re out of the habit of popping out for a local treat or a sandwich lunch; necessities are more expensive, and so, most of us have less discretionary income which is essential for small businesses to thrive.
And, as we are learning, it is time to “pay the piper.” The first responders who hung on to serve through the pandemic are now retiring, interest rates on our debt are rapidly rising, and the reality of realistic tax increases is looming.
Most of us, wiser than the Council majority of the past many years, are reserving our dollars to prepare to pay the higher taxes that will be inevitable.
And that tells a sad tale for our family-owned and small businesses.
HOWEVER, it is important for Teaneck residents to know that one of our fellow residents who is also a Town Councilman and has been for 24 years – does not share our pain. Deputy Mayor Elie Y. Katz who squeaked by into 4th place in this last election, is, indeed, more comfortable than most residents of Teaneck.
· According to ELEC reports filed so far, Katz and the Katz slate raised over $141,000 and spent over $122,000 on the election campaign this Fall. All that to come in last, carry none of his colleague candidates to a win, and send a message to local residents that they probably can’t afford to run for an office to govern their town. If DM Katz has the wherewithal to raise $141+K, imagine what good he could do for the small businesses and residents of our town.
· As Teaneck Voices has made clear in many articles, Katz is the beneficiary of a grandfathered law which is giving him and his family $35,000 of top line tax-free healthcare insurance with an out-of-pocket of only about $1,000. This benefit enables DM Katz to “earn” 46% of the total taxpayer dollars provided to Councilmembers: 6 councilmembers each make $7,000/yr.; DM Katz makes $42,000/yr. In 2022 dollars, over 24 years, DM Katz has received about $840,000 from Teaneck taxpayers.
That is $840,000 of healthcare for DM Elie Y. Katz from the residents’ discretionary income. A bitter pill for the mourners of Bischoff’s, Louie’s - and more to come.
|