New Hazlet majority has plenty of work to do On the week after the election, the Hazlet Democrats called a press conference for what they billed as an important announcement. With their newly acquired power as the majority party on the Township Committee, the occasion could have been used to announce any number of initiatives - perhaps a plan to get property taxes down, or new ethics guidelines to take the town out of the shadow of its corrupt former mayor. Instead, the Democrats giddily marched out two-time Republican committee race loser William Kolibas to announce he had switched parties. Will all the Hazlet residents whose lives are affected by this news raise their hands? That's what we thought. The voters have given the Democrats a great opportunity to serve their community. But at the moment, the new majority seems more concerned with playing municipal politics than attacking real issues that will require their immediate attention. There's plenty of room for improvement over the Republicans' record as a majority, particularly in the realm of taxes. According to figures on the township's Web site, during the last three years of GOP control, Hazlet's municipal tax rate rose a whopping 31.6 cents, or about 10.5 cents per year. The unacceptable increases of 15.5 cents in 2005 and 12.1 cents in 2006 inspired one recent letter writer to refer to their hometown as "Taxlet." In comparison, most towns hold their municipal tax rate increases in the range of 4 cents or less. As for Kolibas, it's certainly his right to join whatever party he wants, but certain aspects of his defection reflected poorly on him. By his own admission, Kolibas began behind-the-scenes talks with the Democratic leadership in the spring, even before the primary. He said he would have switched sides even if he had won as a Republican - whatever his philosophical differences were with the party, its money and organizational support were apparently still good enough to accept. If Kolibas no longer saw eye to eye with his party, he should have left before the primary and given them the chance to field a candidate who actually wanted to be a Republican. He said the reason he didn't was because he was "a person of integrity" and didn't want to "break things up for the Republicans right in the middle of the campaign." Somehow you get the feeling the GOP doesn't appreciate Kolibas' sort of generosity. Kolibas' actions indicate he's not "a person of integrity" but a person only interested in winning an election. Hazlet's Republicans and residents are probably better off without him.