Dear Editor:
There is a biblical story of Issac’s twin sons, Esau and Jacob. The story goes that Esau sold his birthright to his brother for a bowl of lentils and bread; let’s call this a short term gain. Jersey City did something similar as Esau; it negotiated an agreement with Newport over three properties, city ordinance 15.173 . These three Newport properties pay 15 percent to Jersey City and as rents increased so did their payments to Jersey City. Newport discovered it was cheaper to pay regular taxes.
Like Esau Jersey City only cared about short gain. City officials ignored the fact that these three properties with a value around $60 million will probably be worth $180 million after revaluation, using the rule of thumb that properties will probably increase around three times. So the city council voted to keep more money for the next several years and continue the tax abatements than have more money after the revaluation and allowing the tax abatements to expire.
The short term gain only benefits politicians who can boast they kept taxes low for the immediate future instead of allowing the abatements to expire. We need politicians who care about Jersey City long term financial gain. After all, history has proven Esau gave up too much.
Yvonne Balcer