WHAT ABOUT RAMPANT OVERDEVELOPMENT AND RISING MUNICIPAL TAXES?
NA REPUBLICANS PAINT A PICTURE LACED IN EMPTY RHETORIC THAT ALL IS JUST FINE!
“BECOMING BELLEVILLE,” NOT WHAT TAXPAYERS INVISION FOR NA!
NORTH ARLINGTON – If you received your tax bill this week, you also received a very hollow and partisan message that failed to address the 600 lb.gorilla in the room which is what exactly is happening with the explosion of apartment dwellings along Ridge Road with more coming as this plethora of unwanted units is now metastasizing to the Belleville Turnpike and Schuyler Avenue.
That this fundamental transformation of North Arlington as the gateway of Bergen County is now rapidly becoming an extension of Kearny and Hudson County to the south and Belleville and Essex County to the west.
For the notion of keeping North Arlington small, safe and suburban is officially off the table, as long as incumbents Brian Fitzhenry and Allison Sheedy do the GOP’s bidding on the North Arlington Borough Council.
With over 100 units already built, and hundreds more on the way, why was this central and obvious topic simply ignored?
And while overdevelopment, urbanization, density, and this stress on municipal services becomes more and more obvious, why did incumbents. 
Fitzhenry and Sheedy enthusiastically vote “yes” for this unnecessary tax hike when millions sit in municipal budget surplus that would have easily wiped out this increase and still leave plenty to spare? Candidate John Balwierczak was not surprised by Fitzhenry’s actions. “Fitzhenry does what Fitzhenry does best and that’s raise taxes. I believe this is the 12th time he has increased taxes as a member of the Borough Council or Board of Education,” noted the challenger.
While the false narrative of rolling tax assessments helps homeowners was not mentioned, what is “historic” about raising property taxes when you didn’t have to?
For this overtly politicized, taxpayer-funded message never addresses the core issues that residents are talking about each and every day.
The notion of frivolous spending such as $10,000 newsletters or pay raises for part-time elected officials four years running were not mentioned, it will be up to Fitzhenry & Sheedy to address why anyone would support their reelection when they steadfastly refuse to discuss the only real issue people want to talk about, which is the overdevelopment and urbanization of a community that desperately wants to remain small, safe and suburban. 
Democrats John Balwierczak and John Yampaglia continued Thursday evening knocking on doors and saw residents aligning with the notion that things are not just fine as authored in a letter that really was denying where most voters are today.
“Residential street parking is at a premium. We now have car break-in’s and home invasions. This all-Republican Mayor and Council is making NA unsafe,”offered Balwierczak and Yampaglia.
The Democrats have stated that if elected, they will call for a public Town Hall to completely evaluate the community’s current overdevelopment woes and how this course of action needs to be detoured.
“This letter only confirms the obvious. We have part-time politicians in an ivory tower who don’t get it. North Arlington demands a different direction.
This kind of arrogance inflames an electorate that has been kept in the dark. They want a say and they want answers. More importantly they want to be respected and heard,” offered Balwierczak, a former Republican running for office for the first time.”I thought these apartments were supposed to stabilize taxes, not increase them.”
You can meet the Democrats any Saturday between now and Election Day at the North Arlington Post office meeting with residents and registering voters from nine to noon located at Ridge Park Drive.