My Turn: Bassani proud of his record

For those of you who know me, you know I am a “doer” and are equally aware that I am very committed to doing my very best to help chart the right path for Wantage. For those of you who don’t know me personally, perhaps my message as mayor in the recent Wantage Newsletter gave you some insight as to my strong desires to balance the needs of township and our citizens. As such, I sit on multiple committees and boards. As a committeeman, I help to manage the overall needs of Wantage. As a member of the Land Use Board, I help to manage development and have recently played a role in updating the master plan for Wantage’s future development, hence the Wantage Economic Development zone along the Route 23 corridor. The new Dunkin Donuts poised to open as a first step in the right direction. Finally, as a member of the Open Space Committee I am working hard to keep Wantage rural. We recently received a grant for $500,000 of matching funds to buy land to keep Wantage rural. We are actively working to procure properties as I type this letter. As always, the key is finding the right balance.
In my sixth year as a Committee member, and current Mayor, I am proud of my record and accomplishments of the sitting Wantage Committee. Many politicians talk about holding taxes – I helped HOLD taxes. Together with my fellow Committeemen, we have held the Municipal Budget flat for the last five out of the last six years. This was not an easy task and included difficult decisions. We were able to achieve this by constantly seeking and increasing shared services with neighboring towns, cutting head-count, tough contract negotiations and basically working hard, like many of you, to find ways to do more with less.
That being said, as a strong conservative and looking to the future, Property Taxes still continue to be my highest priority. During these difficult times, property tax increases emanating from the Municipality is not acceptable.
Additionally, I am actively pressing our legislators to offer legislation to force the sharing of the burden associated with successful tax appeals, which is currently solely the burden of the Township. Why should our taxpayers carry this burden?
Another priority of mine is municipal spending. I consider myself a watchdog of our budget and the spending of tax dollars. As a small business owner, my experience has helped me tremendously to identify areas of savings within our budget. And as anyone who attends Committee meetings knows all to well, I question every dollar spent by the municipality.
At the same time, I am always looking out for the needs of our citizens and local businesses. One thing I am very proud of is leading the charge to implement a "buy local" policy where we purchase competitive services and products from our local businesses. Competitive being the key word, we do not ask taxpayers to pay more to buy local but I strongly believe we need to support those who support us and give the small business the opportunity to support our needs.
I am not a typical politician. As you might have noted from the Wantage Newsletter, I am accessible, posting my email address and telephone number to all of Wantage. As a committeeman, I am here to serve you.
In summary, I have the experience necessary to continue to do the right job for you, as a small business owner, as a former executive of a large corporation, as a Board of Education member for 6 years and as an existing committeeman. My family has deep roots in Wantage — my father was a small farmer, two of my brothers have businesses in Wantage and my sister is a nurse at St. Clare's. I hope you share my values and commitment to making Wantage a place we can all be proud of. I ask you for your vote in the June 7th Republican primary. One last request — please let your voice be heard — please plan to attend Wantage Committee meetings.