The City Council expects to receive Mayor Glenn Cunningham’s policy on tax abatements at the council caucus meeting on Tuesday.
Since the new term began, no ordinances have required the City Council to grant a tax abatement, which allows for development firms to pay a fixed amount on their property each year instead of being subjected to the fluctuations of the tax levy.
During his campaign for mayor, Cunningham had repeatedly criticized his opponent and former mayor Bret Schundler’s record on tax abatements, saying the system fails to benefit the entire city. Specifically, Cunningham voiced skepticism over whether Goldman Sachs needed a tax abatement to build its skyscraper on the waterfront. Without providing details, Cunningham said he’d release a new tax abatement policy that would make “all of Jersey City’s neighborhoods ‘Golden Neighborhoods.'”
When Cunningham served as council president from 1985 to 1989, he voted in favor of several tax abatements for waterfront development in an effort to lure corporate money away from Manhattan’s high-priced office space. Over a decade later, the waterfront has emerged as a rival to Manhattan’s historic financial district, sometimes earning the name “West Wall Street.”
Because of this newfound status as a financial enclave, many residents believe that tax abatements are no longer necessary. Developers do not face the same risks in building in Jersey City that they did in the 1980s when the waterfront resembled a ghost town.
Nevertheless, city officials are still convinced that tax abatements attract business that would otherwise move somewhere else. Although he never completely rejected the idea of tax abatements, Cunningham appeared to be anti tax-abatement throughout the campaign, especially when he announced that his tax abatement policy would be led by Louis Manzo. Manzo, who lost the mayoral race in the primary election, wanted the city to have an independent study done to determine if Jersey City does, in fact, need a tax abatement policy to lure corporate investment.
But soon after the inauguration, Manzo was left out of the process. He said he believes “Newport developers had concern about my support during his campaign.”
“There’s a lot of arm-twisting in government behind the public fa