NORTHERN NEW JERSEY – Everyone should have seen this coming.
Less than two weeks after the mayors of seven Meadowlands municipalities joined forces to protest a regional tax-sharing formula they believe is unfair to their residents, two of these mayors have already had a change of heart.
On May 13 the mayors of Secaucus, Moonachie, Carlstadt, Little Ferry, Lyndhurst, and South Hackensack held a press conference to say they would withhold their state mandated payments to a controversial regional tax sharing fund. North Bergen Mayor Nicholas Sacco did not attend the press conference but said his town would also withhold its payment.
Regional tax-sharing was established to compensate the municipalities that were barred by the state from developing environmentally sensitive parts of the Meadowlands. District towns like Secaucus that were allowed to develop were required to contribute to a fund to compensate municipalities that were prohibited from development.
Collectively, Secaucus, North Bergen, Moonachie, Carlstadt, Little Ferry, Lyndhurst, and South Hackensack contribute more than $7.4 million annually to the tax sharing pool. This money is then paid out to six other Meadowlands District towns: Jersey City, Kearny, East Rutherford, Rutherford, North Arlington, and Ridgefield.
Teterboro, which is also part of the Meadowlands District, neither contributes nor receives money from the tax-sharing pool.
After trying in vain for years to have tax-sharing abolished, the seven towns agreed earlier this month to withhold their payments in protest until the state took action to either eliminate or restructure the tax-sharing concept.
The first installments of this year’s payments were due at the beginning of May.
The state is now playing hardball with the delinquent municipalities – a stance that’s forced at least one tax protester to cave.
North Bergen agreed to make its payment after the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs refused to consider the city’s application to transition from a fiscal year to a calendar year unless it made its Meadowlands payment. North Bergen gave in to the pressure. The city is expected to contribute $849,612 to the regional tax sharing pool this year.
The (Bergen) Record today reported that Lyndhurst has also agreed to make its payment.
Meanwhile, Kearny Mayor Alberto Santos is threatening to sue the non-paying municipalities to get them to pay up.
Kearny receives $4 million annually from the regional tax sharing fund. – E. Assata Wright
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