Says City Abused the System for Decades, Getting Billions It Didn’t Deserve

Senator Mike Doherty (R-23) said a lawsuit filed by the Jersey City Board of Education against the State to challenge planned school funding cuts should be thrown out:

“After stealing billions of school aid from the rest of the State for decades, Jersey City’s lawsuit should be tossed in the garbage.

“Jersey City has a long history of abusing PILOT agreements, manipulating the school funding formula, and fighting a citywide reassessment, all in an attempt to hide the city’s growing wealth and shift the cost of operating their schools from local taxpayers to the rest of the state.

“As a result of this scheme, Jersey City collected billions more in State school aid than it deserved, while rural and suburban districts across New Jersey got less as a result of this diversion.

“The city should drop the lawsuit and consider itself lucky that it collected as much as it for so long.”