It's true. David Wildstein of the NJ Globe broke the story on Tuesday:
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| https://newjerseyglobe.com/section-2/bhalla-and-degise-make-peace/ |
Interesting. A treaty results from negotiation between parties. So what did the two parties, Hoboken Mayor Ravi Bhalla and Hudson County Executive Tom DeGise, want from the other?
WHAT WAS IN IT FOR TOM DEGISE?
Al Sullivan of the Hoboken Reporter may have identified DeGise's motivation for the sit down:
"Ironically for a progressive, Amy DeGise finds herself on the wrong side of a mounting political battle in which many of the county’s progressives will likely side with Fulop, Stack, and Bhalla in next year’s move to unseat her father in the Democratic primary."
The "political battle" is over County Executive Tom DeGise's commitment to renew Hudson County's contract with Immigration and Customs Enforcement – in which the county would rake in millions for holding immigrant detainees in our county jail. The threat to DeGise's seat is real; Hudson County Democrats and progressives who are repulsed by the County using "blood money" to finance its bloated budget may try to unseat DeGise. They are believers, the "new energy" of the Democratic Party, not political hacks.
Clearly, it was in County Executive DeGise's best interest to quell growing dissent among progressives-- Mayor Bhalla's base. Getting the Hoboken mayor on board was very smart politics for Tom DeGise.
WHAT WAS IN IT FOR HOBOKEN?
GA spoke to the Mayors Chief of Staff, John Allen who provided the following information.
Monday was the first time since the 'war' that Mayor Ravi Bhalla and County Executive Tom DeGise met face-to face. The meeting was held over lunch at (where else) The Coach House Diner, attended by Bhalla, John Allen, Tom DeGise, and County Chief of Staff Craig Guy.
It was a positive meeting, the first of "more to come." DeGise recognized Mayor Bhalla's ability to deliver his Dem Committee votes (all but 7 committee members), and had the loyalty of his base: Democrats and progressives.
According to Allen, "Mayor Bhalla told DeGise that he will continue to advocate against the ICE contract out of principle, but that doesn't mean we want a county war. We need to make sure that he and the County stay out of Hoboken, and doesn't interfere with our ballot referendum and ward election."
Did DeGise agree to that? Yes.
County Executive Tom DeGise promised Mayor Bhalla that he and the County will not interfere in Hoboken going forward. That includes interference in our ballot referendum (runoffs) and our Ward elections.
Yes, but didn't HCDO Chairwoman Amy DeGise show up at Mike DeFusco's Pier 13 fundraiser?
DeGise said that his daughter, Amy is "neutral" in Hoboken politics; as HCDO Chair, she plans to attend all events for Hoboken Democrats. DeGise said that she did not make a donation to DeFusco.
Okay... but at Pier 13, Amy DeGise did lobby for Hoboken's ballot referendum-- a position taken by Mike DeFusco and opposed by Mayor Bhalla. That's a fact. Hopefully, the HCDO Chairwoman will not be lobbying on Hoboken ballot issues going forward.
DeGise also said he "'didn't know anything" about the 527 "non profit" New Jersey Democracy in Action that lobbied for runoffs at the Pier 13 fundraiser.
EARLY RESULTS OF THE BHALLA-DEGISE PEACE TREATY
The Peace Treaty appears to have had an immediate benefit to Hoboken, according to Chief of Staff John Allen who is now in daily contact with DeGise's Chief of Staff Craig Guy.
Allen told GA "The County's been incredibly supportive to our city's water main problems this week. They've sent Sheriff's officers, County Office of Emergency Management personnel and the County Mobile Command unit, and we are in touch on a daily basis. This is just the beginning of a growing relationship."
Well, that is great.
The cliche that 'Rome wasn't built in a day" applies to this growing relationship. So, for a future agenda item in talks with the County, GA would like to put the following on Mayor Bhalla's radar.
FUTURE AGENDA ITEM FOR HOBOKEN
A mythical, all-powerful County "funding formula" has jacked up Hoboken's County taxes 88% since 2009. These increases are unsustainable for Hoboken's dwindling middle class.
So when the time is right, GA urges the City of Hoboken to negotiate tax relief from the County. Put it on the radar.
Some people are off today at Horse and Friends, so we'll need a little time to re-work our narrative from "Crooked Bhallary is destroying the city by declaring war on Degise" to "Crooked Bhallary is destroying the city by making peace with Degise."
ReplyDeleteWe should have something ready in a day or so.
In the meantime, please enjoy our Youtube Channel reruns of your favorite episodes of... The Many Reasons I Hate Crooked Bhallary. Everyone seems to enjoy the category Things He Might Do But Hasn't.
We hope to add a second category before the holidays.
Regarding the funding formula and county taxes, I didn't want to write before, but in the spirit of peace, here it is...
ReplyDeleteThe essence of how county taxes are owed, under state law, is that taxpayers pay a flat rate based upon the market value of their property. There isn't supposed to be any favoritism for one municipality or another.
The way this works is that a county budget is drawn up. The budget has expenditures and presumably also has revenues that are not derived from county property taxes (e.g. ICE money, etc.) There is then a number that is the county expenditure minus other revenues. Let's call that number X.
Then there is the ratable base of the county. This is the assessed market value of all taxable property in the county. This excludes non-taxable properties like government properties, churches, etc. It may also exclude certain other properties subject to abatements (e.g. PILOTs). But for the most part it includes most residential, commercial, and industrial properties. Let's call the sum total of the assessed market value of these properties Y.
To calculate the tax rate, X divided by Y equals Z. Z is the county tax rate. So if your home is assessed at $1 million, whether you live in Hoboken or Bayonne or wherever, your county taxes owed are $1 million times Z. Equity! The same taxes owed for every similarly situated taxpayer- yay!
Except there's a complication. Generally, towns doesn't assess at full market value. The reason is that they don't change assessments on an annual basis, even though property values constantly change, and in most towns most of the time changes are correlated year to year (an up market, down market, etc.) So if your property was assessed at $1 million in 2016, it'll also be assessed at the same number in 2017, 2018, and onward, so long as there isn't a reassessment, tax appeal, or material change (construction or damage) to the property.
So to make sure that taxpayers in different towns are paying county taxes fairly, the county tax boards are required to come up with something called an equalization ratio. The idea is that if Jersey City is assessing all properties at an average of 20% of market value, that is the ratio. And then the assessed value of a property is divided by that ratio to find its equalized value. So if Jersey City's ratio is 20%, an assessment of $100,000 implies a market value of $500,000. And if Hoboken, at the same time, has a ratio of 100%, then an assessment of $500,000 implies an identical market value. The county tax rates for each town adjust for the ratio, so that the Hoboken and Jersey City taxpayers in this example are supposed to pay the same amount in taxes.
The ratios are calculated by the County Tax Board using state-defined procedures, and the County Tax Board is supervised by the state. The ratios are calculated fairly- there's no bias there, and there can't be.
So what this all means is that there's nothing that can directly be done about the county tax burden of Hoboken. The tax formula, which is basically what I've written above, is "fair".
Here is what can be done. Total county expenses can be reduced. That'll reduce taxes for everyone in the County, in proportion to what they pay. Another option is to increase county expenses in Hoboken. If that county expenditure substitutes for City expenditure, it would tend to reduce City taxes. But that would actually make the County tax bill appear to be slightly higher for all Hudson County taxpayers, even though Hoboken taxpayers would get most of the benefit. So Hoboken's county tax bill wouldn't get any lower from doing that, despite the overall benefit to Hoboken.
If anyone has gotten this far, hope this all helps!
I got to the bottom! Thank you so much, Hoboken Dem for the excellent tutorial and proposals. Unlike the mayor who is not bad in math, I'll have to study this!
DeleteDegise needs to hold the line on spending. That is a major driver of the tax increases and entirely within his control. If he cannot keep the budget under control, he needs to be voted out.
ReplyDeleteAs Hoboken Dem explained, blaming "the formula" is basically a distraction used by people like stick Romano to avoid talking about the real issue which is runaway county spending. Our proportional share is high because relative to other HC towns Hoboken is "rich" based on relative property values and in progressive taxation systems the "rich" pay more than the poor. Personally, I am not troubled by that. I believe progressive taxes in which wealthier people (and towns) carry more if the burden are fairer than flat taxes.
ReplyDeleteBut every town's taxes could and would be lower if the County didn't raise the total tax by 5% or so pretty much every year.
The counter point to ever higher Hudson County taxes levied on Hoboken property owners is that Hoboken does not see the same percentage being return from the County.
ReplyDeleteProgressive County taxation doesn't mean the richer communities like Hoboken should get more back because they pay more. That would defeat the point of progressivity.
ReplyDeleteBut we should get our fair share and we don't. And the presence of county personnel helping with the water main disaster shouldn't be a "positive' story. Plain and simply that's there job. If they were not dispatched to help, that would be a story.
If Stack hadn't kept Union City's property values artificially low through a variety of means, Hoboken's burden would be lighter.
ReplyDeleteInteresting. Can you explain what those measured were and how they suppressed UC property values artificially for those of us who don't know what you're talking about?
ReplyDeleteIn part, by attracting and retaining people who live at or below the poverty level, who vote as blocs, and believe they owe much to him. They're reminded of his beneficence with birthday cards, turkeys, poinsettias and Easter plants. The properties they own or rent are not maintained, and when they are improved, permits are generally not pulled, which is the trigger fo how and when city hall would reassess the property taxes. The community pool and other amenities were not paid for through local taxes, and Union City receives what some say is the largest amount of State aid per capita. By keeping the place at near slum conditions, the property values and subsequent taxes are low, and the rest of us carry the load through County, State and Federal taxes.
DeleteAll part of Stack's master plan. Even the property owners are in on it b/c they realize they make far more money renting out slums than they every could developing and renting out luxury units like in Hoboken. And yes, I am mocking you. Your tinfoil hat is on way too tight.
DeleteAnon-
ReplyDeleteTo your point: Brian Stack was elected mayor of Union City in 2010. Was UC the Shining City on the Hill before Stack allegedly "attract[ed] and retain[ed]people who live at or below the poverty line" 8 years ago? Not sure you've been there, but it's not the unkempt "slum" you describe. Per Wiki: "about 17.0% of families and 20.0% of the population were below the poverty line, including 29.4% of those under age 18 and 20.8% of those age 65 or over. "
In 2009 (before Stack) UC residents were paying $131/resident in County taxes. Under Stack, in 2017 UC residents pay $253/resident- a 93% increase. Currently, West New York pays LESS taxes per resident than Union City, and has only seen a 22% increase since 2009. Doesn't WNY have a wealthy demographic packed into the last decade of high-density luxury condo development on the waterfront? Blaming one municipality is a straw man argument when the County jacks up the budget every year instead of choosing cuts.
See Total County Tax by municipality 2009-2017: https://grafixavenger.blogspot.com/2018/05/stack-v-degise-whats-in-it-for-hoboken.html
See analysis of County Tax/resident per municipality of 2009-2017: https://grafixavenger.blogspot.com/2018/06/the-real-county-tax-formula.html
Stack has been Mayor since 2000, not 2010 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_P._Stack
ReplyDeleteThat's about 10 years longer than anyone needs to be in office.
DeleteThese lifetime appointments to office have to end. People need to wake up and vote.
Thanks, Anon- I stand corrected. I remembered Stack's 2010 election, didn't recall he was an incumbent. My point is, blaming one municipality for Hoboken's 88% tax increase since 2009 is a straw man argument which absolves the County from their annual spending spree. AND that UC is not a "slum", etc.
DeleteWeehawken Mayor Turner has already been in office for 28 years and was re-elected for four more.
ReplyDelete