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North Arlington, NJ — The Borough Council has weighed in on the
growing debate on a controversial piece of new state legislation that
would alter the tax sharing arrangement in the Hackensack Meadowlands Municipal District and result in the dismemberment of the town of Teterboro.

The council approved a resolution last week opposing Bill A-2939
titled: The Meadowlands Regionalization Efficiency and Property Tax
Relief Act that would change the 30 year old tax sharing arrangement
in the 14 Meadowlands towns that come under the jurisdiction of the
New Jersey Meadowlands Commission.

The bill, offered by Assemblywoman Connie Wager (D-38th District) and
championed by Sen. Paul Sarlo (D-36) proposes to end the tax sharing
arrangement that now pays the borough $885,437 a year because the
borough is one of the municipalities in the district that has been
unable to develop the Meadowlands portion of the community

The bill asks that the municipalities that pay into the tax sharing
pool be spared further payments and the towns that receive money from the pool, be paid instead through the state treasury.

Council President Richard Hughes said he bill poses great risks to the
borough with little upside.

“In case anyone hasn’t noticed, the State of New Jersey is broke and I
don’t see how or where the state would get the money to pay us our
fair share of revenue,” said Hughes. “This bill is flawed and could
pose a great danger to the taxpayers of North Arlington.”

Hughes said he understands the communities that pay into the
Meadowlands tax sharing pool want a tax break, but he also noted
that: “Those towns have benefitted for years from the massive amounts of development that they were able to add to their communities. North Arlington has been precluded from developing and therefore we were not able to expand our tax base.”

Hughes said that the borough has no way to make up the tax revenue
loss if the tax sharing plan is abandoned and he has little faith the
state would supplement the tax sharing plan for very long.

“Even if the state were to temporarily step in and take over the tax
sharing formula, I doubt it would last very long given the long term
structural debt problems of New Jersey,” said Hughes. “Just because
some towns want tax relief, it should not come at our expense.”

Finance Committee Chairman Joseph Bianchi said the borough has been
hampered by the EnCap redevelopment debacle, which was an unwanted and seriously flawed development scheme that has since died.

“Over most of this decade the borough was fighting the state-inspired
EnCap plan that, unfortunately a previous administration accepted,”
said Bianchi.

Hughes and Bianchi point to the new borough redevelopment plan for the Meadowlands that will ultimately secure a better future for the
borough. “We have a solid redevelopment plan that needs time to
mature. Once we get the redevelopment that we want, the borough will be on solid financial ground for decades,” said Bianchi.

Hughes also said he is opposed to the portion of the bill that would
forcibly dismember Teterboro and portion parts of the community to
nearby municipalities.

“I see partitioning Teterboro as an egregious abuse of government
power,” said Hughes. “It sets a very bad precedent for small towns. If
one town can be eliminated by legislative fiat, so can others. I can’t
support that.”