Proposed redevelopment in Seton Village

ArchBroad said:
I was just going to write "be careful when you use the term 'blight'"...
">

ctrzaska said:
Regarding "blight", borrowing from a friend's post on the topic...

LOL.

RobB said:
Maybe this is a silly question.
Is it financially impossible to build a structure in the state of new jersey without some kind of property tax reduction?

Of course it's not impossible. Just as it's not impossible to shop for groceries without coupons and other price promotions. But, plenty of rational consumers hold out for discounts, especially if there's no urgency to purchase.

NJ developers have come to understand and leverage to their financial benefit/greed that tax-stressed municipal governments will do cartwheels to gain their proposed new developments.

And, they're so confident of this that they think of tax relief as an entitlement, and build project pro formas that assume them. And, then they sell them to investors and lenders based on assuming they'll get a friend's and family discount at the tax check-out window.

Who can blame them? It's smart business to plead your project isn't viable without other tax payers (you and me) cross-subsidizing their grandiose plans.

For decades, NJ developers hoodwinked elected officials into believing redevelopment was possible only with eminent domain and tax breaks. At least now, due to a number of restrictive court cases, we only have to worry about our representatives doling out tax discounts for prime sites.

That said, Irvington Avenue and Valley Street likely are the best candidates for an economic stimulus to attract redevelopment -- not our central business district.

I think that we, as South Orange and Maplewood residents, should be more angry about PILOTs in places like Jersey City and Hoboken than about PILOTs in SOMA.

Jersey City is the king of PILOT granters. The equalized valuation of Jersey City's PILOTed property is over $8 billion, over one third of Jersey City's full, real valuation. The $8 billion is equivalent to a hidden Millburn in Jersey City

Jersey City's schools are almost entirely paid for by state taxpayers and Pre-K is entirely paid for by state taxpayers. This means that Jersey City gets all the benefits of PILOT agreements and pays very little of the costs.

http://njeducationaid.blogspot.com/2015/07/the-problems-of-pilots.html

Absolutely agree about JC and Honoken. They'd be criminals (it is Hudson Cty after all) if it wasn't perfectly legal.

JBennett said:
I think that we, as South Orange and Maplewood residents, should be more angry about PILOTs in places like Jersey City and Hoboken than about PILOTs in SOMA.

I couldn't agree with you more about the shill game run by JC for years. It's been a brilliantly executed swindle that was perfected by the former mayor, Jerramiah Healy.

However, our governing body has no say in what happens there, nor do I think JC'S voters or our state legislators read MOL.