Emily Cook for Princeton Township Committee

The Green Party of New Jersey
Updated March 14, 2007
Emily Cook

for

Princeton Township Committee

The neighborhoods that have grown around Princeton University have long had reputations of being more progressive. This includes the Township of Princeton. However, this distinction has been diminishing over the last several years partly due to a governing body, which has grown more indifferent to the needs and wants of the Township residents.

There are several major capital improvements happening in Princeton at once – producing yearly property tax increases way above the rate of inflation, making it prohibitive for working class and elderly to afford Princeton. Tax increases include a recently approved bond referendum of $78.5 million for school improvements, a $1.6 million increase in the Township municipal budget reflecting overrun costs of a mismanaged municipal building project. And there are tax costs associated with expanding the public library.

The unneeded municipal building project reflects how the Committee has acted beyond the control or accountability of the Township residents. Indeed, the Committee obscured this year’s spending by providing only small print copy of the budget to the public. The final draft was not available online. Residents, if they could even decipher the budget, were given only 2.5 days to pick up a copy before the public hearing on the issue.

Princeton’s pursuit of protecting open space is laudable but has never addressed the inevitable development of these areas into public parks, requiring destruction of woods for soccer fields, requisite maintenance with gas powered machinery and destruction of wildlife habitat for baseball fields.

The most disturbing project this year in the Township has been a deer-killing project costing over $135,000. Sharpshooters were hired to gun down deer in a wasteful effort to “cull” the population. The Township produced an ordinance prohibiting even the feeding of deer in your own backyard. Residents were under surveillance via helicopters and, subsequently, four people were served summons for allegedly feeding deer.

As a candidate for Township Committee, Emily Cook recommends the following solutions:

Stop the marginalization of senior citizens in Princeton by promoting limited multiple dwelling, age-restricted housing for the middle-class with free local public transportation for seniors
Protect open space by limiting the over development of parks. The community should have more reasonable control over public lands.
Prohibit the surveillance of citizens and other violations of constitutional rights
Install reflectors to prevent deer-car collisions, using federal highway funds to cut costs and introduce birth control project to reduce herds nonviolently
Address present and potential environmental problems in the Township including but not limited to restricting 18-wheeler through-truck traffic and clearer, enforceable local noise ordinances
Eliminate waste in spending including by reducing excessive consultant fees and exercise more oversight on public projects. Use environmentally sound building techniques and materials when possible.
Provide understandable tax bills and municipal budgets with public information online
Save residents on costly expense of hiring private trash haulers by a single trash hauler contract and consider pay as you throw EPA program to reduce costs to taxpayers.
Princeton Township residents are entitled to a conscientious governing body!

Emily Cook - Personal

Emily is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker. She has lived in Princeton Township for over fourteen years.

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