Dear Editor:
It is amazing to me that our Mayor Barberio, just this week informed the world that Parsippany’s Real Estate market is booming beyond all expectations, and yet he and the Town Council majority (except Town Councilman Justin Musella) have insisted that Parsippany must vote for the 6 Payment In Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) programs because many parts of our town are blighted…(which it is not)!
The outrage from the citizens seems not to have been heard. In all the TC meetings that I have attended dealing with PILOTs, I have heard not ONE Parsippany taxpayer speak out in favor of this program, all brought to us by Attorney John Inglesino, who is representing all of the various developers, I believe. Mr. Inglesino’s firm also represents The Township of Parsippany in other business issues. While this may be entirely legal, it does seem that the various developers looking to obtain the PILOT’s financial benefits for their projects have recognized that having an attorney with a deep relationship with our town’s administration is in their best interests.
It is surprising to me that our township political leaders may have misread the very recent vote for both the Town Council and Board of Education elections. In my many years of living in Parsippany, I do not ever remember the vote for both the TC and BOE being so razor thin with one long-time incumbent being voted out on the BOE and one Republican TC candidate losing out to a Democrat. Is our current leadership so arrogant and disrespectful of the clear demands of the Parsippany Taxpayer/Voters that they feel it is better…”safer” for them to follow the dictates of Mr. Inglesino’s clients’ wishes?
I do not know how this will all shake out, but I believe very strongly that the current administration is standing on the edge of a cliff…and it is a peril of all their own making. I hope they do not, of their own volition, jump into the abyss. They should step back from that edge, I believe. The voters of Parsippany have forgiven political disrespect before, but it seems that time is now long past. I doubt the passage of Pilots on the heels of the PLA fiasco that was pushed down our throats will go unpunished at the next election.
Hank Heller
Parsippany
