Voters support cutting open space tax rate

Voters support cutting open space tax rate
Referendum vote backs up three on council
BY KENNY WALTER Staff Writer

TINTON FALLS — By a margin of close to 1,000 votes, Tinton Falls voters on Nov. 3 approved cutting the open space tax rate.

The yes votes carried a referendum on the ballot that asked residents if they wanted to lower the open space tax rate from 3 cents per $100 of assessed valuation to 2.25 cents.

According to unofficial results reported on the Monmouth County Board of Elections website, 2,964 residents voted in favor of cutting the tax rate while 1,988 voted against the cut.

The issue became controversial over the summer when the Borough Council spent several meetings debating whether to submit a question on the open space tax rate for a referendum vote.

The council ended up accepting the referendum question with a 3-2 vote at the Aug. 18 council meeting, just nine days before the deadline to submit referendum questions to the state.

Council members Scott Larkin, NancyAnn Fama and Gary Baldwin supported adding the question to the ballot and last week said they are pleased with the outcome.

"I'm very pleased that the referendum passed," Baldwin said.

"From my perspective, I'm just happy that the residents got the opportunity to voice their opinions in the matter," Larkin said. "In terms of how it turned out, I was just happy that the council gave them the opportunity."

While the three council members supported the measure, it does not mean they are against open space.

"There is no question that open space is something that we need to preserve," Baldwin said.

"I think that open space is a good thing," Fama said.

"We have a commitment to open space," Larkin said. "We have a fantastic open space committee. We have some passionate people on our environmental commission. We will be able to proceed."

When the topic of the open space tax first came up, the argument was whether to keep it at 3 cents or lower it to 1.5 cents, until Larkin eventually proposed the compromise of 2.25 cents per $100 of assessed valuation.

Larkin said that 2.25 cents really represented a "common-sense compromise."

"It was a really hard issue to deal with," he said.

"Both sides really had compelling arguments," he added. "To me, the 2.25 represented a compromise to that."

Baldwin fought against the 2.25-cent compromise, but ultimately voted for it.

"My opinion is we should have cut it back to a cent and a half," he said. "He [Larkin] wanted to compromise. It's better than nothing."

Baldwin added that a lot of false information was put out about the impact of cutting the tax.

"The opposition to this was trying to make an issue that by voting yes on this referendum, it would put the open space program in jeopardy," he said. "That just isn't true.

"That was nothing more than [an attempt] to try to scare the public into voting this down," he added.

Under the current 3-cent tax, Tinton Falls will collect $901,774 in dedicated open space funding, according to Director of Finance Stephen Pfeffer. With the tax cut approved by voters, more than $676,000 will be collected during the 2010 tax year.

Pfeffer also said that currently there is approximately $1.7 million in the open space trust fund.

Baldwin thinks that amount in the fund is more then enough for the borough to move forward with open space responsibly.

"We have enough money; we are well overfunded in the open space tax receipts," he said. "It is something I think we needed to do.

"It was a windfall profit, and I just don't think it was right for us to take [the money] without them having some say in it," he added.

According to Borough Clerk Karen Mount-Taylor, the borough collected $384,181 through the open space tax in 2007. After the borough's property revaluation in 2008, the amount collected rose to $876,746.

Baldwin cited the rise in collection after the revaluation as the reason why he pushed to drop the tax.

"With the revaluation of the home properties two years ago, we ended up taking from the taxpayer a lot of money, well beyond what the original 3-cent-per-$100- evaluation allowed us to take," he said. "It went from $384,000 to $901,000 simply because of the revaluation.

"The open space tax will still generate $676,331," he added. "The whole thing was just fallacious. We are still taking from the taxpayer far more than they thought we would take."

With the tax cut approved, the average resident will receive a $25.79 tax cut a year.

Last year a resident with a house assessed at the borough average of $343,760 paid about $103 in taxes for open space.

Baldwin and Larkin saw this as a small step in the right direction.

"While some of my colleagues didn't agree, we just felt this is one of the few times that the borough council had the opportunity to give something back without really cutting services or cutting people," Baldwin said.

"These are very difficult times for people," he added. "These are times where our taxes are going up.

"The referendum was very clear: it was a chance to reduce the tax burden, albeit a small amount," he continued. "We have to begin somewhere."

"Taxes have been the most significant issue in New Jersey for some time now," Larkin said. "When given the opportunity for tax reduction, at whatever level it was, the people were going to look to put some money back in their pockets."

Fama said the main thing is that the cuts give the council the opportunity to give back without cutting services.

"We were able to reduce the taxes, not cut services," she said. "We are ecstatic. I think it is vindication for the ones that were supporting cutting the tax.

"We will always look to preserve open space and be responsive to taxpayer concerns," she added.

Fama credited teamwork and hard work as instrumental in cutting the tax, which is why she was not surprised by the result.

"I knew the sentiment of the residents I have spoken to is that they are looking for government to be responsive and to cut in areas that we can," she said. "I think it was a very good example of teamwork and hard work in getting our message out."