Chuck Cahn (D)
1. For the past four years, council has approved budgets with no municipal tax increase for residents. How would this continue if you were elected?
When I took office nearly four years ago, I promised to run the local government efficiently and effectively, to streamline township operations and emphasize fiscal responsibility, while continuing to deliver strong municipal services. At the same time, I knew that building a strong future for our entire community would require a multi-faceted approach. One that would improve our commercial landscape, but also preserve and enhance the quality of life in neighborhoods across Cherry Hill.
I am proud to say that I kept my promise and ran the government efficiently and effectively. As a result, in 2015, for the fourth straight year in a row, we did not raise municipal property taxes.
At the same time, we continued to fund important programs and services that ensure Cherry Hill remains a great place to live. We have allotted more than $8 million for our 2015 Road Maintenance Program. We continue to support public safety and recreation, and have established a strong partnership with the Board of Education that will improve athletic facilities across town — including new multi-use turf fields at Cherry Hill East and West and new tennis courts at Cherry Hill West.
And, we continue to control municipal debt — taking advantage of our strong credit rating to save taxpayers more than $5 million over the last four years. This is how I am helping to ensure that Cherry Hill remains on solid economic ground in the future.
Holding the line on taxes is also a direct result of our ongoing efforts to promote economic growth and reinvestment, something that I will continue in the future. Since 2012, we have worked to revitalize underutilized properties in order to return them to our tax rolls at a higher and better use. Our progress can be seen at nearly every corner of our community. Cherry Hill has emerged as a regional hub for healthcare, and will soon be home to some of the biggest names in medicine: including Penn, Cooper, Virtua, Lourdes and Kennedy.
Our total ratables have increased for the first time in more than a decade — to more than $8.1 billion dollars. New families are moving into our community at the highest rate in years. We are revitalizing our community’s gateways. And we have secured important protections for open space throughout Cherry Hill — including at the Woodcrest Country Club, and beyond.
In short, Cherry Hill is growing. Cherry Hill is flourishing. Cherry Hill is once again a place where families, seniors and young professionals alike want to live.
If fortunate enough to be able to continue in this role for another four years, I will continue to run Cherry Hill like an efficient, effective, and sustainable business.
2. How would you rate the job the township has done in protecting open space the past two years? Is there anything you would do differently?
The preservation of open space has been a top priority of mine these past four years. I made it clear from day one that I was vehemently opposed to seeing development on any of our open space, and I vowed to challenge anyone who attempted to do so. In 2012, I held firm on my opposition to building housing on Woodcrest Country Club and am proud to say that all 165 acres of environmentally sensitive and historically significant open space will be free from development forever.
Put simply, my position on development in the township has and will continue to be: no development on open space. Instead, I have encouraged the redevelopment and revitalization of already developed sites that are either vacant or under performing. As long as I am Mayor, I will do all that I can to ensure that our remaining parcels of open space stay truly open and green forever.
Philip Guerrieri (R)
1.) For the past four years, council has approved budgets with no municipal tax increase for residents. How would this continue if you were elected?
An audit of the township books is necessary. Remember, the Race Track Development was to be an “Economic Juggernaut”. We should have surpluses that allow substantial tax cuts, not just “no municipal tax increase.” The Mayor has “donated” a million dollars of taxpayers’ money to the Board of Education for artificial turf fields. Is this interfering with the budget process? We need to keep our taxing agencies separate. We need to know what money we have, and just where it’s going.
We have to create an economic atmosphere that will fill our empty business spaces and draw people back to Cherry Hill. We object to being a cash cow for the county. Cherry Hill sees very little benefit from county taxes. We must object to the state and county tactic of taxpayer-funded subsidies for businesses to relocate to Camden or any other community. Tax subsidies have become a bidding war. They are toxic to communities, and pick winners and losers. Taxpayers, of course, are the biggest losers. The mayor should take a strong stand against such practices.
2.) How would you rate the job the township has done in protecting open space the past two years? Is there anything you would differently?
I would rate it poor! Jamming 152 apartments on less than 10 acres does not do much for the open space concept. It’s more about a developer making a lot of money for very little land. This has been the general policy with this administration.
If we think of open space as a refuge for nature, why are we covering acres of our schools’ athletic fields with plastic turf? It’s been documented that on a 94-degree day, the air temperature above the plastic turf field is 165 degrees. On the same day, the air above an asphalt surface is 136 degrees. Isn’t this worse than paving all of those fields with asphalt? Can you still consider them open space? And as a bonus, after approximately 10 years, all those acres of plastic must be recycled at a very high cost to taxpayers.
