Home Rule Charter

[davidk]

What are your thoughts on the Home Rule Charter?
We have a choice to vote yes or no as well as for the board members should it pass and before hitting the poll I would like to see others thoughts and concerns about it.

[Sal]

Home Rule charter is a bad idea.  If you don’t know what it is, Vote No.
We need less government not more.  Vote No to Home Rule!

Newton used to have five supervisors and in the November 2004 election, the people of Newton voted by a vast majority 590 to 350 to reduce the Board to three.  Let’s not go backwards.  

Bigger government is not better.  See the discussions from 2004.  viewtopic.php?f=4&t=52 and   viewtopic.php?f=3&t=45  

Newton did well with three supervisors since the 2004 election.  Newton’s taxes are reasonable and we had no increases the whole time.

Unlike most Townships that choose Home Rule charters, Newton had no tax increases, is not living on borrowed money and we actually have a cash surplus.  Don’t let the raiders grab our money.
 
With Home Rule we’ll have 7 to 11 council people or whatever they will call themselves and we surely don’t need that.   Good luck keeping track of all those new bureaucrats and your taxes will go up to pay for them.

Less government is better.  Save Newton.  Vote No to Home Rule.

[Admin]

This was received by the Committee to save Newton Township and posted here.

Vote No to Home Rule on Election Day, Tuesday, November 8
Newton Township successfully operates under 2nd Class Township Code with an elected Board of Supervisors

What you have:
•        All township business conducted at open forum meetings with Supervisors, Planning Commission and Oil & Gas Advisory Board meetings.
•        Your township taxes haven't gone up in 8 years
•        An annual budget of less than one million dollars
•        24/7 police protection. Volunteer Fire Co. supported by township
•        Road service, snow removal, negotiated, cost effective garbage collection
•        Balanced budgets, no deficits

What Community Counts demands / Why Home Rule?
•        Their demands to the supervisors are simple. Pass an ordinance to ban natural gas drilling in Newton Township or they will try to enact Home Rule.
•        No negotiation. No open dialog.
•        If passed, Home Rule with the 7 member commission can and will change township government. The commission study will generate additional expense for the township. They will be financially liable individually without  insurance protection.
•        Their agenda is initiative driven to overrule the supervisors' decision to proceed with caution and protect the township. This township is not made up of "poor, uneducated" residents (a quote from a Community Counts member).

Were you told the supervisors did nothing and won't listen?
•        Not true. Were you at the township meetings?
•        No one in this township wants water we can't drink or air we can't breathe. No one! Not the new families in residential areas or the lifetime residents whose families go back generations and have preserved this agricultural community.

What the Supervisors have been doing to protect us:
•        Adopted a 10 ton weight limit to protect roads
•        Asked solicitor to research legality of the ordinance to ban drilling
•        Appointed a 7 member Impact Committee to study zoning and ordinances
•        Hired an Environmental Consultant to meet with the joint Planning Commission and Oil and Gas Advisory Committee to review and develop legal ordinances and zoning that protects the township and residents
•        Held public meetings

Why the supervisors won't pass an ordinance to ban drilling:
•        Township solicitor advised against a drilling ban that can be challenged and a legal battle that can't be won (potential to drive township to bankruptcy)
•        Planning Commission advised against passing ordinance to ban drilling, state law supersedes local government
•        An appointed 7 member volunteer Oil & Gas Impact Advisory Board voted to not accept the ordinance as it stood (one vote yes — all others voted no)
•        State law supersedes township law. Mineral extraction (gas drilling) is allowed.
•        Banning drilling opens Newton Township to a punitive damage law suit that can't be won. When the township is defeated we all pay through taxes.
•        Talk to taxpayers in Clarks Summit about the Grandview Street lawsuits.

What you can do:
•        Work with your supervisors. Show your interest by attending township meetings. Go to the official website http://www.newton-township.com for facts and information.
•        JOIN WITH US ON NOVEMBER 8TH AND SAVE NEWTON TOWNSHIP FROM RECKLESS GOVERNMENT ACTION AND POTENTIAL BANKRUPTCY BY VOTING NO TO HOME RULE

Editor’s note:  At the time this was published there was not much information on the Township’s website however there is quite a bit of information on this website.  See links above for “discussions from 2004” where the Board was reduced to three and the Gas Lease section at viewforum.php?f=19