Dear Editor: Heard the latest? Well we all know about the recent 47 percent tax hike, which apparently doesn’t seem to be able to go away. Shockingly, it seemed to appear out of nowhere, but it actually involved a process of events happening over years of poor governance by some elected and appointed city officials which allowed the city’s budget to get out of hand and required a state monitor and then a hefty tax increase. Not only has chaotic city spending, involving patronage, political favors, and plain ignorance, robbed us through tax hikes, over-development permitted and encouraged by our Mayor and Council has compromised our quality of life. Slowly they are allowing a wall of high rises to grow around the perimeter of our town. When our politicians need to cover their expenditures, they look to redevelopment and payments in lieu of tax (PILOTs) from developers as the solution. But in the end, PILOT agreements lasting decades push the costs of overdevelopment onto the backs of the taxpayers. At Wednesday’s February 18th City Council meeting, a resolution was passed to have the Planning Board determine whether the 19 blocks of Hoboken west of Park Avenue, north of 14 Street, east of the Palisades, and south of 17th Street is “in need of redevelopment”. The Council will then vote on whether this region should be designated a redevelopment zone. This designation exempts the region from compliance with the zoning laws mandated by the current Hoboken Master Plan. Originally, the Rockefeller Group proposed over 2 million square feet of development within 8 blocks; now this redevelopment will be allowed to sprawl over 19 blocks, placing new traffic, parking, water, and sewer stresses on our infrastructure and overshadowing surrounding buildings on 14th, Park, Willow, Clinton, Adams, Jefferson and Madison Streets, and in Weehawken’s Shades district. This redevelopment project will also be exempted from school, county, and municipal taxes, paying only PILOTs to the City. If history is any basis for prediction, the tax exemption will not only increase taxes for other municipalities in Hudson County, the PILOTs will not be sufficient to offset the redevelopment related costs that Hoboken will have to bear, increasing Hoboken property taxes. Citizens have to be vigilant about what development is being planned near their homes and parks and keep informed about what is coming down the pike. If we cannot trust our elected representatives, then only our own vigilance and activism will give us enough influence over the town’s direction before it is too late to avert a tragedy. We did not have to suffer a 47 percent tax hike. Bad decisions, a lack of prudence in spending and bonding, ignorance, cronyism, and secret back room deals with developers through the years helped make that a reality. But if we work together to obtain and process the information needed to make good decisions and to insist that our government officials make the right decisions, we can have a positive impact on our town. Mary Ondrejka