"Yesterday Mayor Gilmore announced that Hamilton Township received an offer by a developer to purchase land located next to the police station and library," Bencivengo said.  "The Mayor claims that an appraisal valued the land at $4.5 million dollars, but just last night Mayor Gilmore's business administrator told the Council that no appraisal of the land existed.  What is the truth?  Is there or isn't there an appraisal?  It is clear that the Gilmore Administration can't even get its story straight," he continued.  "Furthermore, what sense does it make to buy Klockner Woods for $4.1 million in an attempt to save open space, just to turn around and sell open space already owned by the township to a developer?  I'm confused as to whether Mayor Gilmore is for or against preserving Hamilton's limited remaining open space." 

"Selling irreplaceable township assets in an attempt to balance the budget; now why didn't I think of that?  Just like we've seen in years past this is just another election-year Gilmore gimmick to come up with artificial revenue to plug holes in his budget that in the end will cost taxpayers millions of dollars in higher taxes." Bencivengo added.

"This is just the latest offering from Gilmore's bag of excuses for delaying the presentation of his budget, a budget that is predicted to have a devastating tax increase," Pone stated.  "It is apparent that Mayor Gilmore will do anything to delay the presentation of his budget until after the election so he can hide his 25% tax increase from the people.  This is completely unacceptable and the Council will not play Gilmore's games any longer," he continued.  "The supposed offer to purchase this land has nothing to do with the budget and as long as I am on Council this land will not be sold to developers for the sake of political expediency."

"Even thinking about using a sale such as this to help balance the budget is fiscally unwise and irresponsible.  This would be a one-time revenue gain that would leave us in an even bigger fiscal hole next year," said Kenny.  "Mayor Gilmore's idea to sell this land to balance his budget is the same as Governor Corzine's plan to sell the NJ Turnpike.  It makes no fiscal sense to do so.  This deal is like selling your house to buy groceries.  It is completely irresponsible and the Council will not go along with it."

"Earlier this week I presented my "Fiscal Five" plan to fix Hamilton's finances and a piece of that plan is to provide an open and honest budget process.  I will make this very clear; under a Bencivengo Administration there will be no more one-time budget gimmicks and the cozy relationship that has existed between the Mayor and developers will end," Bencivengo commented.  "This proposed land sale has the makings of another Klockner Woods and is even being brokered by the same campaign contributing developer who handled that deal.  The people of Hamilton cannot afford another $4 million debacle," he concluded.