Dear Editor:
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but just in case you’re living under a rock, and don’t think that will protect you from the clutches of the Jersey City Tax Collector’s Office, the new proposed reevaluation is scheduled to begin shortly. As the residents and business owners, including the renters, brace themselves for this kangaroo reassessment, there should be some definite concerns.
The bid was approved and authorized by our political conglomerate of confused representatives, with the usual objections by the minority of the City Council. The Mayor, who is living in his own utopian form of existence, naturally supports anything that would put more money in the City’s coffers. This would obviously authorize him more flexibility to increase and protect his army of loyal political hacks, escalating the exploitations of the already burdened taxpayers. These abuses of our monetary cash flow would recruit more soldiers appointed to the payroll labeled “positions of uselessness”. These albatrosses would naturally protect their justification by endorsing The Mayor’s constant existence of buffoonery.
The company that was anointed to perform this insensitive regressive action of honoring the ineffectual wishes and desires of Caesar is the “Realty Appraisal Company” of West New York, N.J.
We are presently experiencing a negative period of National and State economic deficiencies, with high unemployment and inflation. This also includes diminished property value on most real estate. It’s definitely a buyers market, for all those who have enough private funds to purchase, because Mortgages approved, range from slim to none. Will these adversities mirror the correct true value of each and every newly proposed appraised property or will it be estimated erroneously with a ridiculous exaggerated price?
Some probably don’t remember the last reassessment we had in Jersey City. It was a nightmare. Hard working residents who lived through many hardships inflicted upon them by a renegade City government of arrogance, corruption and incompetence, (sounds familiar), decided to stand their ground. They became the solution to the problem, by unselfishly becoming one of the main essential ingredients in rebuilding their communities. Their reward was a cold hard slap in the face, by a bogus reevaluation, responsible for inexcusable exorbitant real estate taxes.
These were descent law abiding citizens, whose only crime was to stay and offer a helping hand in resurrecting a dying municipality. Their families lived and owned these homes for generations. This forced uncompassionate sanctioned process of inaccuracies, created by an inept unmonitored private assessor, victimized most of them into extinction. Is this in our future?
If the reassessment is initiated properly, there shouldn’t be any substantial increases, but multiple decreases. The prices of most properties are already inflated. Most of the City is still experiencing a war zone atmosphere of deteriorating conditions, foreclosures, lack of upgrades, vacant abandoned structures and empty lots? This administration’s tax with sleazy dishonesty must stop immediately, while any backdoor schemes to potentially raise taxes, especially during a recession with high inflation and unemployment, is just stupidity.
William P. Frasca
Jersey City, N.J.