Issues

Affordability

Mullica Township is a great place to live. We need to make sure our residents can afford to stay here. Here is how Beth would try to make Mullica Township more affordable.

1)    Pursue funding to help offset residential taxes.

We have to get creative and lean on our federal and state governments for more funding. If we are restricted from growth in the Pinelands, we should receive state impact aid to help our struggling community. That doesn’t just happen on its own. It takes local elected offficials contacting state and federal legislators. It takes local elected officials researching grants and solutions that other towns have found. Beth is prepared to do that to help stabilize our tax rate, while ensuring needed infrastructure improvements.

Similarly, we should advocate for mThis is a real solution that together our community can push. If elected, Beth is prepared to lead the community on this.  

2)    Advocate for changes to the School Funding Formula

While Mullica taxpayers saw an increase in all taxes last year (county, municipal, regional school, and local school), by far the largest increase was in our local school taxes. The reason is that the state’s school funding formula doesn’t work for rural communities like Mullica Township. Despite having a small tax base, the state assumes our local taxpayers can pay more and does not provide state funding at the levels it should. Changing the school funding formula to cap the local fair share (which is the amount local taxpayers pay) to no more than the county average would mean more state aid and taxpayer relief for Mullica residents.

3)    Find other ways to lower costs for Mullica residents.

Keeping our community affordable is more than just maintaining a stable tax rate. We can and should pursue other cost-saving initiatives, like bringing mobile health care and motor vehicle services, and work with our local farmers to make fresh produce more accessible to the community to save time and cut down on transportation and other costs.

Accountability

We will bring clear and concise decision-making through open and fair public meetings. We cannot afford for policy decisions, like the construction of a new town hall, to drag on for years, resulting in increased costs. 

Accessibility

Accessibility – provide stability in our government and better communication with residents about township decisions. Our meetings should be video recorded and livestreamed like other towns.

This also means building connections within our community and organizing little- to no-cost activities for our township residents.