Dear Editor: “Only the little people pay taxes” got Leona Helmsley into lots of trouble but that appears to be Jersey City Mayor Bret Schundler’s creed. Schundler and his staff are in favor, over neighborhood objections of revising the height of buildings in the Jersey Avenue Redevelopment Plan to accommodate the scale of Millennium Towers. For those who aren’t aware, that project is a colossal twin tower 43-story luxury apartment complex with shopping and a huge restaurant at the mouth of the Holland Tunnel. Inadequate infrastructure, narrow streets, and the already congested roads cannot support this project between Grove and Jersey Avenue at 18th Street. Serious air quality concerns and electro magnetic fields are also of no concern to the developers or the Schundler administration. The current owners, Unified Diversified LLC purchased the land in August 1999 for $1.5 million and $977,000 of back taxes and interest due the city. The previous owners never paid a dime of taxes on the property since 1991! It was never sold in a lien sale since the previous owners claimed that the land was contaminated. At our last meeting with the developers and Council President DeGise, UDC claimed the contamination was a few barrels of oil buried in the ground so it was no big thing. UDC still hasn’t paid a dime in back taxes but they’ve already applied for a 20 year tax abatement for this 551 unit luxury apartment building with a shopping mall etc.! For a project that the developers claim will cost over $150 million, they still haven’t paid the back taxes due of $1,065,000 as of April 5. What makes the city think they’ll ever pay the tax abatement? By the way, Unified Diversified didn’t pay their taxes on March 24 but they were granted an extension to April 24. Then technically the city goes to court to apply for title to foreclose on the property. Makes you wonder why a developer would not pay up rather than continue paying 18 percent interest when supposedly you’re about to spend $150 million+ on a project? Maybe they expect Schundler to forgive the taxes and let the little people pay? Or is it another quick flip once UDC gets the height variance and tax abatement from the city? The Planning Board will resume the JARD/MT Plan height variance hearing on Tuesday, May 9 at 6 p.m. at City Hall, 280 Grove Street. So when you’re scrounging to get the money together to pay your tax bill, with a tax increase by May 1, remember Schundler, in that “only the little people pay taxes.” Mia Scanga CPA