Dear Editor:
Beneath our very noses is a high-stakes shell game that affects every property owner in the City of Hoboken. It’s called PILOT (payment in lieu of taxes) and it’s a great way to shift county and school taxes onto the back of all the poor saps who pay full freight for the privilege of living in our fair burg (including yours truly).
Ironically, it’s often developers of prime Hoboken real estate that ask for the PILOT and other forms of tax abatements (i.e., tax shifting to the middle class). Somehow, I just don’t appreciate the irony of paying more taxes per square foot than some high-end building.
PILOTs are also used in Affordable Housing buildings. While I certainly think there should be affordable housing in every community, these units are only “Affordable” to those who live there because the unpaid tax burden is shifted to the remaining homeowners (who already pay full freight).
It should be noted that approximately 25 percent of Hoboken’s housing stock is Affordable Housing. This is quite an admirable feat, but quite frankly, I think we have enough Affordable Housing for a mile-square city.
Obviously, Hoboken has done its share in providing Affordable Housing. I wonder how much Affordable Housing is in Westfield and Short Hills?
Having said all the foregoing, you might now expect me to rail against PILOTs and urge adamant opposition to granting PILOT status on any additional project. But you’re wrong.
In this period of post 9/11, my heart swells with unbridle patriotism, and I think all good Americans should all step up to the plate to do our fair share — and that’s why I now offer to the City of Hoboken this golden opportunity to grant PILOT status to my home. And I urge all property owners to call City Hall to make a similar selfless offer. If PILOTs are such a good thing for the City of Hoboken, then Paradise can only be achieved when all middle-class property owners band together and relinquish our collective privilege of paying school and county taxes.
Remember, every dollar you don’t pay in school and county taxes is like a bullet aimed at Osama bin Laden and his cadre of Evil-Doers. And if all good Americans apply for PILOT status, then the only people paying school and county taxes will be the al Qaeda sleepers amongst us.
God bless America! God bless Hudson County! And God bless the City of Hoboken!
Peter Rozano