Jersey City Councilwoman Nidia Lopez, who won her office this past spring and was then criticizing for also owning a place in Florida, has insisted that her primary residence is in Jersey City. As a result, she must pay thousands of dollars in taxes to the state of Florida.
According to PolitickerNJ, she “will pay thousands of dollars the State of Florida claims she owes because she is, in fact, a Jersey City resident, her attorney argued in a brief submitted Friday. The attorney, William Northgrave, says that Lopez mistakenly continued to claim a homestead exemption on her Orlando, Fla. house that was intended only for permanent Florida residents after she moved to Jersey City in 2000. She has ‘taken steps to correct that error’ and will pay more than $30,000.”