Middlesex County officials have no right to tap into the county’s open space fund to fend off a tax increase in the 2010 budget, the head of an area environmental group said.
“This was voted on by referendum, and the taxpayers approved the open space funding,” said Robert Spiegel, who heads the Edison Wetlands Association.
Voters had previously approved a referendum that called for a tax of 3 cents per $100 of assessed valuation to be set aside for open space acquisition.
But the county Board of Chosen Freeholders is slated to vote Thursday on a resolution that reduces the open space tax by a penny, bringing it to 2 cents. Freeholder Director Christopher D. Raffano said the move is necessary to avoid an increase in the 2010 county tax rate.
“The bottom line is to give the taxpayers in Middlesex County tax relief,” Raffano said Monday. “We all know it’s difficult times for all of us. The county got hit hard with a loss of revenue, loss of aid and state mandates.”
The reduction in the open space tax is just for 2010, he said.
“We faced a daunting task of reducing the county budget and we were successful,” Raffano said. “We felt as though it would be appropriate to defer 1 cent of the open space tax, which will enable us to deliver a budget that has no tax increase for 2010.”
There’s still $84 million sitting in the county’s open space coffers, Raffano said.
“It will meet all open space acquisitions for this year,” he said. “Forty-five million [dollars] is earmarked for this year for 2010 properties. Another $39 million is either in the negotiation stage or the reviewing stage. Because of our strategic planning, we will be fine for 2010 and 2011.”
Edison Wetlands Association members will be demonstrating again outside the county administration building at 75 Bayard St. on May 6 to protest the open space tax cut, Spiegel said.
“The freeholders are taking it upon themselves that we have enough open space,” Spiegel said. “It’s really mismanagement of county money that we are being forced to use open space funds to balance the budget.”
But the county did not reduce the open space tax for this year to balance the budget, Raffano said.
“The bottom line is we’ve gotten down to a certain level, we looked at all different areas in which we can provide tax relief to the residents,” he said. “By dropping that one open space point, we are able to have a net effect of no county tax increase for 2010.”
Cutting the open space tax in these times is “absolutely insane,” Spiegel said.
“The county can be buying land at bargain basement prices,” he said. “Developers are looking to sell all the land they bought. Anybody that drives around Central Jersey realizes we don’t have enough open space.”
The county has purchased 8,000-plus acres of open space and preserved another 5,000 through the state Farmland Preservation program, Raffano said.
“There’s nobody that can ever challenge Middlesex County’s commitment to open space,” he said.
County officials have been “wasting” taxpayer money with little oversight, Spiegel said. He pointed to the recent sale of the county’s engineering building to New Brunswick.
“Now they will rent it back from the city for an undetermined amount of money,” Spiegel said. “The public is in no mood for this kind of shenanigans.”
But Raffano said the city wanted the building as part of its redevelopment plan.
“Redevelopment is good for the city of New Brunswick,” he said. “It puts people to work. We are able to benefit from the sale of that building.”