FOR HACKENSACK’S FUTURE CANDIDATES CALL FOR DEVELOPMENT DEAL REVENUE TO OFFSET SCHOOL BUDGET

City Schools Have Lost an Estimated $1.5 Million In Annual Revenue Negotiated Away From Our Schools, Impacting Taxpayers and Students

HACKENSACK, NJ, (March 31, 2019)–Following the Board of Education’s second failure to pass a proposed school budget on March 29, 2019, Tim Hoffman, Yvette Washington Irving and Basim Ahmad–school board candidates running as the For Hackensack’s Future slate–have called on the city council to immediately agree to restore the estimated $1.5 million in annual tax revenue an independent analysis of the city’s development deals shows the school budget has lost.

The candidates have released the following statement.

“Our city council has approved over 2400 new housing units in recent years, which will certainly have an impact on our schools. Besides potentially adding hundreds of children into our facilities, the owners of these rental apartments have been given tax breaks and incentives that allow their payments on these properties to bypass the schools and disproportionately go toward the municipal budget. An independent analysis of the city’s PILOT agreement shows that the schools will lose an estimated $1.5 Million from these arrangements, and despite repeated asks, Mayor John Labrosse and our city council refuse to meet to discuss how our district can receive its fair share from these development deals.

We understand the frustration of homeowners, who have become increasingly tired of seeing tax breaks offered to investors while their own taxes remain among the highest in Bergen County. Homeowners should not have to choose between supporting education and investing in schools, which will increase their property values, and voting to keep their tax bill low. The mayor and council can immediately do its part to help lower school taxes by following in the footsteps of municipalities throughout the state who have agreed to pay their schools their fair share from development deals.

Just last week, Jersey City’s council unanimously voted to give 24 percent of revenue from tax abatement properties to its school system, with one councilman stating that “it’s bad public policy that the city gets to take all the money.” This follows their 2017 decision to give 10% of all PILOT payments from redevelopment properties to their schools. Similar initiatives have taken place in municipalities statewide such as Woodbridge, where the city agreed to give over $45 Million in PILOT payments from city funds to the schools. The issue isn’t whether or not our city officials can do the same, it’s whether or not they are willing to work with the Board to do what is right by our children.

The decision of BOE Trustees with ties to city council to vote against the school budget twice this week highlights the urgency in increasing revenue to our schools, so that essential resources and staff are not pulled from our students. It is disingenuous to claim support for our students and staff, while depriving them of the funds for the vital resources they need. Offering a school budget to the public is one of the most essential, and commonplace, responsibilities of a local school board. The Board’s failure to fulfil its duty is an unfortunate reminder that we must come together to find actual solutions that benefit our children, instead of relying on fear mongering, empty sloganeering, and divisiveness.

The For Hackensack’s Future candidates are committed to ensuring that our schools are appropriately funded, while also working to relieve the burden of taxpayers by demanding that developers and other municipal investors pay their fair share to our schools and our city as a whole. While we are also committed to fiscal responsibility, we refuse to use the budget and our ability to maintain local control over district finances as political bargaining chips.”