JEFFERSON TOWNSHIP — For all of our present Town administration’s insistence that they do all they can to help our local schools have the funding they need, there is no way to explain this:
The latest piece of residential development that was negotiated by this administration is doing the exact opposite. As a matter of fact, Jefferson Place on Rte. 15, next to QuickChek, is a double-whammy on us the taxpayers. Worse yet the hardest hit are our children and their schools. Jefferson Place was built with the endorsement of this Mayor under a PILOT (Payment In Lieu Of Taxes) and that agreement expressly eliminates any property taxes collected from those homes to go to the SCHOOL BUDGET, 95% goes to the town and 5% to the County!! This new development will not pay any school taxes for 25 YEARS!!
If that was not enough, Jefferson Place was built in violation of the NJ Affordable Housing Law and the Builders Coalition is now suing our Township. Knowing full well that any new development must conform to that law. Full disclosure here, I personally fought hard with my Republican caucus colleagues to kill that law but we all know how the majority party holds us under their thumbs.
So, there is our double-whammy. Not only are our children and our schools being deprived of what they deserve but now all of us in Jefferson have our public treasury under the scrutiny of the State because of the feckless and irresponsible treatment we get from this Township’s administration. Don’t take quick smiles, photo-ops and feel-good statements as indicators of good public stewards, they’re not!
Press Release submitted by Christian E. Barranco
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