Despite the recent economic turmoil and the township's apparently insatiable demand for amenities, its tax rate stayed flat from 2006 to 2010 and went up only slightly last year. And that is precisely why the community now faces a financial emergency, say leaders of the five-member, all-Republican Town Council and a chorus of budget experts. Tax increases when times got rough coupled with spending restraint could have saved Medford from the hard choices it now faces. "That's a problem all over the country - the desire to make everyone happy so that you can get their vote," Mayor Pace said. The debt was ignored. http://bit.ly/ygrqCe