SECAUCUS AND NORTH BERGEN – Budget committees in the state Assembly and Senate have approved legislation that, among other things, could reform the Meadowlands District tax sharing formula.
As one of 14 towns included in the Meadowlands District, Secaucus comes under the jurisdiction of the New Jersey Meadowlands Commission (NJMC), a state agency founded to plan and oversee regional development in the Meadowlands.
The tax-sharing program was established in 1972 so that local towns that aren’t allowed to develop environmentally sensitive parts of the Meadowlands could receive money from the towns that are.
The program was meant “to create a fair and equitable method of distributing the benefits and costs of economic development and land use decisions made by the NJMC amongst the 14 Meadowlands District municipalities.”
Since the 1960s, some municipalities in the Meadowlands District have been zoned for uses that do not generate much tax revenue – such as parks – while others, like Secaucus, were zoned for office space, which can generate a lot of revenue. State legislators believed it was necessary to spread the financial benefits of development evenly throughout the Meadowlands District.
Secaucus taxpayers currently contribute about $3 million annually to the Meadowlands tax-sharing pool, and the town is the largest contributor.
North Bergen, Carlstadt, Lyndhurst, Moonachie, East Rutherford, Little Ferry, and South Hackensack are the other municipalities that contribute.
Jersey City, Kearny, Rutherford, North Arlington, Ridgefield, and Teterboro are the towns that receive money.
However local municipal leaders have long argued that tax-sharing creates a burden on taxpayers in the eight towns that contribute to the pool and last year they stepped up efforts to end the formula without penalizing the towns that benefit.
The legislation, sponsored by Sen. Bob Gordon and Assemblywoman Connie Wagner, is now expected to go before the full senate and assembly in the fall.
Gov. Chris Christie has been supportive of the bills and has vowed to work with the legislature to reconcile the assembly and senate versions of the legislation.
“Through a collaborative effort our legislators in Trenton, including Assemblyman Vincent Prieto, were able to accomplish in a few months what lobbyists couldn’t do in 10 years,” said Secaucus Mayor Michael Gonnelli.
Earlier this year Gonnelli cut funding to lobbyists who had been working on tax-sharing reform and began working with Prieto and others to get the formula changed. – E. Assata Wright
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