The State Aid Game.
How does Harrison receive $6.6 million while North Arlington
gets just $500,000?
Taxes rise 33% in NA while infusion of state support keeps
Harrison increase at just 8%!
NORTH
ARLINGTON - North Arlington is 2.6 square miles. Harrison 1.3 square
miles. North Arlington has 15,077 residents while Harrison has 14,424.
North Arlington has 6,392 households while Harrison has 5,136. 24.5% of all
North Arlington households have children under the age of 18 while 33.7% of
Harrison households have children under 18. 49.7% of North Arlington households
are married couples while Harrison has 49.8% of households with married
couples. Read More
7.2% of
Harrison residents are Chinese. 5.6% of NA residents are Asian. 19.5% are over
65. Just 10.3% of Harrison residents are over 65. The median family income in
NA is $62,483 while in Harrison it's just $48,489.
North
Arlington borders Kearny as does Harrison. Both towns play in the same athletic
league (BCSL) and are rivals in football, soccer and basketball.
Both
communities are considering huge redevelopment proposals and while one
community is from Hudson County and the other from Bergen, when it comes to
state aid, they are world's apart.
Last
summer, North Arlington's request for $1.5
million dollars in state aid was denied as excessive despite diminishing
landfill fees and a legal stand-off with EnCap Holdings, the developer of record who is seeking to move forward with
the construction of 1,625 units of new housing under the name Arlington Valley. While
the deal has been voided by the Massa Administration, EnCap has enlisted Donald Trump to save
the project and shows no change in direction as it intends to moving
forward with eminent domain seizure along Porete Avenue that will
eliminate some sixteen industrial & manufacturing outlets and 500 private
sector jobs.
While both
sides debate who broke the contract, many observers believe EnCap never had the financial ability to execute the agreement in place and the
embattled developer has been seeking deadline extensions to sustain Phase One
of the controversial proposal to remediate landfills to residential
housing & retail space through North Arlington, Lyndhurst and
Rutherford.
Having
been denied state aid as well as the ability to refinance debt, North Arlington
lowered the boom on taxpayers with a 33% tax increase that was caused primarily
by the EnCap agreement and a failure of the
borough's legislative representatives to deliver on the promise of state aid.
Because of that lack of state support, voters took out their frustration on
Democratic incumbents Phil Spanola and Mark Yampaglia while State Senator
Paul Sarlo won the community by a mere 60 votes despite outspending his
Republican opponent 500,000-1.
Because
state aid never materialized, Republicans seized on a 33% tax increase which
catapulted Joe Bianchi & Richard Hughes to office and leaves local
Democrats with a 4-2 majority after enjoying a 6-0 governing body the last
three years. Despite being the only community to oppose EnCap and the deal on the table, that
opposition many believe is the reason state officials have turned a blind eye
to North Arlington's plea for help.
New
Jersey, which has a $33.5 billion dollar
budget apparently had room to assist Harrison, while communities like North
Arlington and Rutherford were forced to increase taxes at record levels because
local legislators could not, or did not deliver on the promise of
serious state assistance.
While
Harrison is under strict financial conditions to receive such an infusion in
cash, the bottom-line for taxpayers was
just a 8% increase in property taxes. This year's $6 million dollar aid
program is $2 million more than what was received in 2006. North Arlington
received $500,000 in 2007 and nothing in 2006.
Over a two-year period, Harrison has received
$10 million dollars to North Arlington's $500,000!
And while
Harrison moves forward with an ambitious redevelopment plan, North Arlington's
taxes would have increased slightly had they received the $1.5 million they
sought from Trenton.
While
Harrison will be monitored for fiscal compliance for receiving such state
assistance by the Local Finance Board, doesn't strict financial reporting and
accountability bode well for taxpayers if it meant avoiding this year's tax
hike in North Arlington?
Until
North Arlington can successfully bridge it's finances in a post host fees
environment to a real development plan, taxes will continue to spike no matter
who's in charge of local government. Given that reality, when is North
Arlington going to receive the kind of state assistance Harrison currently
enjoys to fix these finances once and for all?
