Madison Council Candidate Advocates For Shared Services

Tom Haralampoudis, a candidate for Madison Borough Council, submitted the following letter to the editor:

A principal responsibility of a council member is being a good steward of your hard earned property tax dollars. In 2020, Madison taxpayers paid, approximately, a combined $66.8 million: $13.6 million for our town, $43.2 million for our school system, and $10.1 million to the county.

Madison is fortunate to have dedicated professionals, many of whom I’ve worked with over nearly three decades of volunteering in town. I have no doubt that working together, the town council and municipal agencies will continue to fulfill our mission to deliver great services. However, I am equally sure we can do better. And as with so many things, the pandemic will force some of those changes. Tax receipts are expected to be down this year, and there are other possible shortfalls on the horizon. Elected leaders must be proactive, and effective.

If elected, I will champion finding more opportunities for shared services. Much good work and planning has occurred between the town and Board of Education to find ways to save, but there surely are more. Even the NJ State government, seeing the need to helping the 565 municipalities in the State, has set up a dedicated professional staff and funding to assist with the process of discovering and implementing savings through shared services.

A common sense policy would be to insist that as funding requests are made, agencies proactively present ideas how the services - or equipment - can be shared with other departments, or in some cases other towns, or why they ought not to be.

Also, as I’ve mentioned elsewhere, there is an immense untapped depth of talent that lives in Madison who would gladly volunteer to help out for ideas of implementing them, if asked. I know this because I’ve lived it. I will seek them out to help wherever their expertise intersects with town needs.

Finally, we can use technology that the town already has to be maximally transparent about our efforts. Suggestions to save through shared services, whether they come from town staff or citizens, can be logged, published, and tracked so residents know we are being good stewards of our resources and using all means possible to save money.

There are no easy fixes to the budget challenges that lie ahead. Big breakthroughs are rarely obvious or easy. But improvements are possible if leaders have demonstrated financial acumen, and experience collaborating with diverse skills to solve problems. It’s what I call common sense for the common good. I respectfully ask for your vote on Tuesday June 8th.

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