Taxpayers’ group responds to city’s request to change wording on rent control vote

HOBOKEN — The Mile Square Taxpayer’s Association Political Action Committee has issued a press release in response to the lawsuit filed Monday by the city of Hoboken regarding the wording of the current rent control ballot question. The question posed to voters is whether or not buildings with four or fewer units should be exempt from rent control once a tenant vacates. The wording of the question was deemed by the city of Hoboken as confusing or misleading, and the city has asked a judge to change it. The city has submitted its own suggested wording.
According to the Mile Square Taxpayers Association Political Action Committee, the ballot initiative will be “defended vigorously” by the Hoboken Housing Improvement Initiative Committee of Petitioners, who say they offered more than 2,000 people the petition and consequently collected 1,400 signatures with the specific language of the question unrevised. The Mile Square Taxpayers Association Political Action Committee feels that the city’s meddling deprives citizens and petitioners of their rights.
“The city claims it simplified the language, but their question is 65 percent more words and they have achieved far greater confusion instead of reducing it. A nearly identical question circulated in Morristown in 2005, and never faced a challenge. Why Hoboken feels that it has an interest in an issue that it has steadfastly refused to address is politicking at its worst,” said Ron Simoncini, treasurer of Mile Square Taxpayers Association Political Action Committee.

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