Since 2004 Teaneck voters have consistently (every 4 years) agreed that an additional 1% tax should VOLUNTARILY be collected to allow the Council to purchase 1) open space 2) additional recreational improvements and historical preservation work/exhibits.

However, It has been almost impossible for the past decade to get accurate/understandable reports of what <ODT projects and expenses the Council has approved. Teaneck Voices has worked hard to get that information in a comprehensible way. It has not yet succeeded.

But it has, via persistent Open Public Records Act (OPRA) requests now gotten lists of expense items the CFO tells us he has listed as MOST expenditures. Most of the items (which vary in size from $4.00 to $50,.000) do not understandably tell us for what projects the expenditures have been made or when it was and whether Council had approved the projects for which the expenditures were made.

When the MOST committee belatedly meets by zoom (Click Here) on Wednesday evening 5/10 the agenda (Click Here) calls for the Manager to be present to explain for what the Town has used this voluntary tax. Why, for example, is the license site remediation professional’s 2022 review of 3 town roads a MOST expense. But

Voices hopes that our readers will have been more successful than Voices reporters have been in deciphering the data we present here for MOST expenses in 2021, 2022 and Quarter 1 of 2023. We also again present several relevant pages from the Town’s 2022 Annual Financial Statement (AFS) and from the MOST page in the still-to-be adopted 2023 municipal budget. Perhaps we are a group of residents can ask clear questions – and the Manager will provide concise answers!

The Town’s OPRA response to a request for 2023 MOST 1st Q expenses 
http://OPRA Response – Powers – MOST Q1 2023 Expenses
The Town’s OPRA response to a request for 2022 MOST expenses
http://61043-OPRA Response – Powers – MOST 2022 (003)

The Town’s OPRA response to a request for 2021 MOST expenses
http://61042-OPRA Response – Powers – MOST 2021

From the Town’s 2022 Annual Financial Statement

From the page 63 (Sheet 43) of the 2023 proposed muni budget

https://www.teanecknj.gov/media/Documents/Yearly%20Budget%20Information/2023/2023%20Budget.pdf