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Hie Herald end The Lantern

Wednesday, June 18,1880

Considerations In Restudying The Caps Law Hit by spiraling inflation and less aid from state and federal sources, government officials on the municipal, school'district and county levels have .been clamoring for changes in the state “cap'’ law. Under the 1977 legislation, a ceiling or cap of 5 per cent was imposed on tax levies, a tnove designed to keep tax increases as low as a forced scrutiny could provide THK 5 i’KH CENT CAP, however, can be effectively exceeded because budget items like debt service, mandated state and federal expenditures and some emergency appropriations are all excluded from the cap calculation The ceiling is further raised through revenue generated by the increase in property valuations of new construction and improvements The commissioner of the state Dept, of Community Affairs-the Trenton agency most responsible for scrutinizing municipal and county expenditures-has created a study committee to review the cap law and the impact it has had on local government units over the past four years. The special study panel will convene this summer. WE HOPE THAT AMONG ITS considerations are the impact of ratables-the value of new construction-and the impact of debt service upon the taxpayer. Through effectively raising the ceiling on expenditures by excludfing debt and new construction, the cap law is fostering growth and indebtedness as a loophole around the ceiling on tax expenditures In Cape May County the increased reliance on new indebtedness through the use of millions of dollars worth of bond issues on the couhty and municipal levels is obvious to anyone who has been reading the newspapers during the past few years. The hue and cry by the politicians for more ratables is also a familiar sound heard by Jersey Cape taxpayers. Less audible are the observations of some taxpayers (including editorial writers) who have been pointing out for years that there is a government service obligation on the other side of each ratable coin-demands for police, fire and rescue squad protection and other public services (like Gypsy moth spraying). And the demands grow louder as the population grows. THE CAPS LAW WAS GOOD in its indentions and with its initial success in putting the brakes on tax increases. But insofar as it adds incentive to; putting \off expenditures through higher public debt, And putting more reliance than ever on ratable?-the Caps Law is bad and begs for corrective action.

No Kovprnmpnf con long be secure without a formidable Opposition. ■ Benjamin Disraeli

"Whot Do You Moon Tvo Boon In Congrot* So long Tv* loti Contoct Wltfi Th# Outtid* WorW. Whot Oultido WorW? ’

S8« 729-2255

Q. What« S.C.R.I.P.? A. 3 C.R.I.P it a statewide computerized referral * Information program of the Developmental Disability Council' for assisting disabled In finding programs and services available to them. For information call Toll Free 800*792-8858 Q. Is ti^re a sales tax on renting a room in Cape May County? A. According to General State Tax Information in Vineland, if your stay is under 90 days there is a sales tax, if longer than 90 days there isn’t. Q. I have a child who is 11 years old and we are a low income family. Are there any summer day

camps available? A. For - summer day camp programs, contact Gape Human tResoui^e’s Community Centers ‘call Wfidwood at 522-0231, Whites boro at 466-91^2, or Woodbine at 861-2816 for further dftajls about the prograpj. N v - z 7 / .... First Call For Help is interested in getting you the help you need when you have a social service problem which you cannot solve. This is not an Emergency Hotline for Fire, Police or Rescue* This service is confidential

and free.

If you have a question for the First*Call for Help column, write to David G. Quinlan Jr., First Call For Help, Sorlal Services Bldg.. Rio Grande. N.J. •8242 or call 729-2255.

The Value Of Our Ideals Lies in Working for Them

Capk'mav II 4 -v tleraUt ■v e.O.SaaiO AvalM. MJMWt John H. Andrus II idltor WHUan, J. Admmt AdnrtlMg Director DurrWllKoof* Publisher Phomo fS74J12 for Nows or Advorilslng Information MAM. ISMS Nows A Photos Thursday Adoortlslnp Friday - 3 p.m. ChmMtod Advertising Monday - Noon r rtw puSHUran •* tfcs NSSALD • Sr Wsfcls h .. _ •«•. to mmy tssw *. •*« my toMw w •

By Senator Bill Bradlev

EDITOR S NOTE - The junior U.S. Senator from New Jersey addressed the graduatingebu of Yale UniversityMay 24. What follows are excerpts from his

speech:

..We can’t go backwards. We live in a time and place that has lost its innocence ... But I must add this: whether you’re a graduate beginning a career, or a president leadings nation,it’s not enough just to go through the motions of questioning. You have to come up with something! You hgve to take a stand, to make clear what you believe — or you'll never learn where your beliefs fail. As Conrad wrote in his great novel Victory, "Woe be it io the man who has not learned while young to love, to live and put his trust in life." If we can't get clear on what we’re doing, if we can’t face an issue and pick a course of action, we’ll never know what’s right and what’s wrong, what works and what doesn’t, what advances our values and what corrupts them. In short, wp’ll be just about where we are...” PART OF GROWING UP as an individual or v a nation is making that decision about what we "positively want to be” and accept responsibility for our own actions within our democracy. My generation came to this problem — yours may have been bom with it. Now for some people there is a popular answer to the demands of democracy. It goes like this: I don’t know what'slight for anyone else, so I’m going to take care of myself. As one political observer has written, "We live in*a time when the American people are looking inward, when the passionate public issues of another decade have been replaced by the pursuit of private pleasures. Ten years ago, hundreds of thousands of citizens poured into the streeU-»n Common cause, marching to secure justice or to end a war." BUT THE FACT IS. no matter how rich we are ^r how well we plan and carry out our private recreation, or how often we indulge ourselves, none of us can escape the effects oTtfsrgtSvemment policies or the absence of them. If we don't have adequate schools, we will have poorlyschooled people. If we don't have adequate housing, we will have separated families seeking shelter anywhere... We must never forget that your children ... and my children ... will walk the streets of the cities we build or neglect. They will enjoy the safety, freedom and diversity we create, or allow to erode. They will suffer the effects of the injustice we permit. They will be given the kind of medical care we establish. They will live in the social climate we create. Whether we like it or not. we are all in politics. When the citizen turns his back on politics, he leaves the field to manipulators and exploiters — and sooner or later he will find himself living in a world where might makes right. WHEN THE CITIZEN ENGAGES in activities for the benefit of people other than himself, he will be repaid by the sense of a community larger than himself — an imperfect community, to be sure, a flawed community, but his life will be different for the effort. Sometimes politics amount only to this: at the very least, we make sure the greatest evil does not prevail. In the worst

Jt’s not enough just to go through the motions of questioning You have to take a stand. When the citizen turns his back on politics, he leaves the field to manipulators and exploiters — and sooner or later he will find himself living in a world where might makes right. Sometimes politics amount only to this: at the very least, we make sure the greatest evil does not prevail.

...the A merican people no longer have much faith in the ability of their government to respond to their needs and to solve their problems.

...we will have to keep expanding our economy.

individuals also will have to sacrifice and begin to treat risk as an opportunity, not a threat.

... I believe every young person could give a year of service to his or her country...

of times, our bravest and best ideals do not

prevail. But we keep them alive... ...Thoreau wrote that "Dreams are the

touchstones of our characters." The 1970b have not been a time in which dreams could flourish. We have been beset on all sides by fundamental problems of resource constraints, environmental degradation, a growing Soviet threat, persistent inflation, declining comparative advantage, and an usntable world

monetary system.

DURING THESE YEARS, our dreams have been shaped less by the hope of creating a better world, than by the fear that we can barely hold onto the things we already have. We have been told that we live in an era of limits and lowered ex- * pectations, and that instead of seeking pew ways to overcome our problems, we must learn to live with them. We have come to regard the future with uncertainty and doubt, rather than assurance and an-

ticipation.

It’s not hard to trace the origin of these feelings. I think we must start with the fact that the American people no longer have much faith in the ability of their government to respond to their needs and to solve their problems. Although we create new programs, new agencies, and new levels of bureaucracy, too often it seems that none of It makes any difference in the way we live. We spend enormous sums of money but nothing seems to change except the size of the federal deficit and our tax bill... BUT THE PROBLEMS WE FACE are highly complex and I would never pretend to you that a better society can be brought about without the full acceptanc* that quick answers are part of the problem. We must reverse the end of the telescope through which, in the last decade, we have been focused to view events, ourselves and our nation. We must prepare for the long term by increasing our productivity and our share of world trade, by using energy more efficiently, by protecting against the increased probability of an oil supply interniptidn, and by finding some way to stabilize the world monetary system. We must, in short, start the economic pie growing agai.i so that living standards can continue to .mprove and workers don’t have to pay higher taxes to keep our promises to those in society who,are old, disabled and poor. In other words, to expand equality, to expand opportunity, we will have to keep expanding our economy. INDIVIDUALS ALSO WILL have to sacrifice and begin to treat risk as an opportunity, not a threat. We should distinguish among risks, insuring ourselves against those which are unproductive, such as illness and loss of life, but seeking out some of the productive ones which challenge us to achieve ex-

cellence.

Also. I believe every young person could give a year of service to his or her country — if not as a soldier, then as a health worker, teacher, conservationist, Peace Corps member — or in whatever role he or she may do the most good. When John Kennedy said, "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country,” he did not mean these two goals were contradictory ... in the long

run.

In the short run ... you have to take a chance ... Our avoidance of risk has gone (Page 35 Please)