According to a survey issued to a small number of county residents by Phillip Bazzani, York district representative on the Gloucester County Board of Supervisors, a majority of citizens feel pay raises for school and county employees should be a number one priority in building the county’s fiscal year 2017 budget. However, he said the majority of those surveyed wished to see little to no tax increase to accomplish it.

Bazzani presented the results of the survey he sent out April 4 during the board of supervisors’ first budget discussion last Wednesday night in the colonial courthouse. “I was very curious what our citizens felt about the proposed budget, the proposed tax increase and the current status of our real estate tax rate,” Bazzani said.

The target audience of the survey came from a portion of those that are signed up for the York District Herald, a newsletter that he issues periodically through e-mail.

Bazzani said he assigned random numbers to those ...