Legality of an ordinance remains an issue
By: Nick Norlen
WEST WINDSOR Members of the West Windsor Township Council don’t want residents to take the heat for using solar energy.
Citing a case in Hamilton Township in which one resident faced increased property taxes resulting from the installation of solar panels, Councilman Franc Gambatese proposed drafting an ordinance that would exempt such devices from property value assessment at the March 5 Township Council meeting.
"Basically, I think that if anybody is willing to go through the expense of adding solar power to their house to save the environment or save on energy, I think they should be given 100 percent tax credit or at least they should not be assessed for the value of that," Mr. Gambatese said Wednesday.
Township Attorney Michael Herbert said it must first be determined if there are any state statutes that would prohibit the township from granting an exemption.
A bill addressing the issue was introduced in the Legislature in January 2006 and was referred to the Assembly Appropriations Committee a month later.
According to the bill, it "would establish a property tax exemption for the installation of a solar energy system" an exemption previously provided by a law that expired Dec. 31, 1987.
Mr. Gambatese said he hopes the township is able to pursue such an ordinance.
"I hope there’s not some kind of state mandate that we have to jump through hoops and change the system," he said.
Mr. Herbert said he expects to find out about the legality of such an ordinance in the next few weeks.
He said that if such an ordinance were allowed, it would "say, in a sense, that installing solar panels would not be considered a taxable improvement on the property. In other words, it wouldn’t be put in the classification of somebody building an addition on their house."
Mr. Gambatese said he isn’t aware of anyone who has installed solar panels in West Windsor.
"Maybe if we draw enough attention to it, people will become interested in it," he said.
Councilman Charles Morgan, who said he would support such an ordinance, said he hesitated to be the first to bring up the issue at the March 5 meeting because he had contracted the installation of solar panels on the roof of his home just the day before.
For that reason, Mr. Morgan said he might have to abstain from voting on any ordinance if one comes before the council.
He said he will discuss the matter with Mr. Herbert.
Either way, he will firmly support the adoption of such an ordinance, he said.
"I would support it whether I was doing it or not," he said. "We should not be discouraging people from installing solar panels on their homes with hitting them with a tax increase."
Mr. Gambatese agreed.
"We need to be out in front of this whole green movement as a community and we want to encourage people to want to do that," he said. "As a member of the global society, we have to do something to encourage people to use alternative forms of energy."

