PARSIPPANY — On May 4, the Township Council expressed concern about the proposed special emergency note of $5 million that’s been requested to balance the budget. A special emergency note is a short-term public financing option, which is typically amortized for 1 year. This emergency note, however, will be amortized in 5 years. It’s a one-time exception, due to the COVID-19 pandemic that has impacted our Township and so many communities across the country.
Let me be very clear – we are still working our way through the worst health crisis this country has seen in over 100 years. Small businesses, non-profits, schools, banks, and nearly every aspect of the country’s economy have been devastated over the past year.
Revenues for municipalities across the country were ravaged by COVID-19, and our Township was not spared from this fallout. It’s not just Parsippany that is reeling from this.
However, a combination of poor fiscal practices from the previous administration led to an absence of revenue surpluses across all departments. Now, coupled with a global pandemic that shook the country’s financial institutions to their core, Parsippany is facing a budgetary storm that we must address and correct today.
As you may have heard, Parsippany stands to receive over $5.7 million in federal funding through the American Rescue Plan Act. This funding will go a long way toward bringing Parsippany back to a fiscally prudent standing, and we have the federal government to thank for this assistance. But this relief won’t be coming to the Township as quickly as we would hope. The most we can expect is half of that before the end of the year. We have bills to pay now. This is not just some abstract allocation of finances. Township operations may be at stake. The water we drink, the garbage that’s collected, the emergency services we rely on, all of them are vulnerable to cease operation if we cannot pay for them to operate.
This is why this emergency note is critical. We will have the money to pay this off, but like thousands of cities and towns have been forced to address, it’s going to take careful and precise financial prudence to work our way back to balance and fiscal responsibility.
It may be convenient for some to forget what our residents and Township have gone through over the past year and a half, in favor of scoring some political points. We have no time to waste playing political games, we must properly implement this funding to help assist our taxpayers now, and make our Township finances whole again. This starts with approving this special emergency note.
