Dear Editor:
There are two city questions on the ballot that I hope will be defeated by voters. The first is a question to move the municipal election to November from May. Our election is important, it is does not need to be part of the federal, state, county, and school elections. This benefits the incumbent with name recognition.
The second question is to vote on a tax for open space. The revaluation takes place in 2018 and one third of Jersey City residents will go up, so why give a tax when one of city taxpayers will have a tax increase? Why have a tax increase when the state of New Jersey is telling our public officials they also plan on reducing school aid? Taxes will automatically increase for all taxpayers; the exception is tax abated properties if school aid is cut.
The open space question also said this money will be used “for acquisition, development, and maintenance of lands for recreation, conservation and historic purposes.” Why add the language historic if this is for open space? Is the city being honest with the citizens for the use of this money?
Furthermore, the proposed $0.02 per $100 of assessed valuation might be a slight increase in taxes now but a lot more when properties are assessed after the revaluation is done.
Yvonne Balcer