It was announced at a recent Toms River Council meeting that the 2007 budget would include a tax rate increase of 4.1 cents per hundred. Mayor Paul Brush was quoted as saying that he had no choice in raising the taxes and blames the tax increase mostly on not being allowed to raid the DMUA treasury and imposing a communistic style mercantile license fee.
   As a DMUA ratepayer, I see any surplus by the autonomous utility agency as an investment of my monies in the sewerage system and should only be used for the benefit of the ratepayers. I do not believe that monies of the DMUA ratepayers should be used as a one time bail out scheme by the mayor, especially just before he is up for re-election in the upcoming year.
   I would also like to commend the Township Council for not allowing the mayor to impose a parasitic mercantile license fee on our communities business owners. In the recent debate about the town name, Mayor Brush claimed to be the guardian of local commerce with one hand, while attempting to pick the pockets of local merchants with the other hand. This mercantile license scheme is nothing more than a hidden tax which would eventually trickle down to the average citizen in the long run as well as being repressive. While such a scheme would be to most large businesses as a minor nuisance, the majority of merchants in our community are small mom and pop businesses which would be hurt the most by such legislation. At a time when the business climate is uncertain, we don’t need additional burdens on our small businesses so that the mayor can continue his tax and spend policies.