Montclair Secessionists

In 2004, the citizens of Montclair voiced their support for secession from Essex County. These rebels were motivated by rising property taxes, which many of them attributed to wasteful spending on schools, especially in notorious Newark, where money allegedly evaporates after it is touched by the administration of Mayor Sharpe James.

However, before the town tries to cut taxes by moving to cheaper neighbors, it has to solve its own problems. Montclair leadership has a long history of pandering on the issue of wasteful spending for useless initiatives. Up until last year, the township spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to pay men to pick up empty garbage cans and place them back in the driveways of residents. The purpose behind this, according to former mayoral candidate Margaret Mukherjee, was to prevent "the atmosphere of abandonment" on streets where people weren't home to tend to their own garbage cans. Nevertheless, the same lower income families that that project was supposed to protect (poorer residents tend to be away from home more often and hence are not able to pick up the cans) are ultimately driven out of town because of the rising property taxes, which are exarcerbated by pork barrel projects such as useless garbage can pickups.

Joyce Michaelson, the councilwoman at large for Montclair, supported the referendum for secession, although her website does not specify what her stance on the actual issue is.

Should Montclair secede? It's not like Passaic County doesn't have it's own problems in the boroughs of Paterson and Passaic.