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All Eyes On Highlands Tonight

Will Anna Little End Her Term As Highlands Mayor As A Christie Republican or As A Corzine Democrat?

Dramitization. Neither Anna Little nor Jon Corzine really look like this.

Dramitization. Neither Anna Little nor Jon Corzine really look like this.

By Art Gallagher

 

Tonight in Highlands we find out if Anna Little has come to her senses or if she really has forsaken any future in the Republican Party.

In case you missed it, on December 1 Little inexplicably returned to Highlands from the campaign trail for the 2012 congressional race to join her Democratic colleagues on the governing body in approving a hastily drawn labor agreement with the Highlands PBA that undermines the plans of her Republican successor as Mayor, Council President Frank Nolan.

Her actions have lead many of her recent supporters, including yours truly, to question who Little really is. Others have been saying, “I told you so.”

Is Little the “Christie Republican” she campaigned for Congress as, or is she a political opportunist “Corzine Democrat?”   Did she vote with the Democrats on December 1 to give herself some time to study the agreement  before making her final decision with the vote that will occur tonight?  Will she make the tough, yet potentially unpopular choice to reduce the size of government and save taxpayers money, ala Governor Christie, or will she hamstring her successor like Corzine did to Christie in 2009 when he made a hasty deal with the state workers union out of political expediency.

Early indications are that Little has left us for the leftists.  Late Sunday night, apparently in response to my post this weekend, Will The Real Anna Little Please Stand Up, the Mayor posted a grossly inaccurate and incomplete justification of her support for the PBA deal on her facebook page.  “Fuzzy math on facebook,” is how one former supporter described it.

There are two major items missing from the “Fuzzy math on facebook” piece. 

1) The penalties included in the agreement, payable by Highlands taxpayers to members of the Highlands PBA, that could run anywhere from $60,000, to $150,000 should layoffs become necessary in the next 18 months.

2) Little knows that Nolan has started conversations with Middletown about a shared services agreement for police that could potentially save Highlands taxpayers high six figures or more, and return Highlands to solvency, for many years to come.    This new deal complicates a potential shared services agreement and reduces the savings should it occur. 

Democratic Councilman Chris Francy, who promised regionalization in his unsuccessful campaign for Mayor last November, said “Its only $60,000,” when asked to justify his vote for  the agreement on December 1st when he knows about the potential shared services deal coming in 2011.    Maybe Little is thinking the same way.

Hopefully Little will come to her senses tonight.

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Posted: December 15th, 2010 | Author: | Filed under: Anna Little, Highlands, Highlands PBA | Tags: , | 3 Comments »

3 Comments on “All Eyes On Highlands Tonight”

  1. Charles M said at 6:31 pm on December 15th, 2010:

    Art
    Doesn’t the new deal with the PBA save Highlands $500,000? And cutting cops only about $200,000?

  2. ArtGallagher said at 6:50 pm on December 15th, 2010:

    Charles,

    No. That’s Anna’s fuzzy math and incomplete facts.

  3. MoreMonmouthMusings » Blog Archive » Little Opening A U.S. Senate Campaign Account. Shakeup In Her Army said at 12:16 pm on December 2nd, 2011:

    […] a year ago, this blog compared Little to Jon Corzine over a policy position she took in one of her final acts as the mayor of Highlands.   […]