To the editor:
We are indeed entering election season with all the silliness it brings. Over many months, I have endeavored to lay out the truth behind affordable housing and the recent PILOT (Payment in Lieu of Taxes) agreements. We should all carefully listen to the candidates and what they have to say about these issues. I am not alone in watching this township race very carefully.
So far, the Republican candidate Ed Jackowski has expressed reservations about the PILOT agreement. That’s a good start.
The Democratic candidate, Deputy Mayor Julie Blake, has recently attempted to take credit for the PILOT by suggesting, on September 25, that she voted to bring $100 million to the township.
Power brings the opportunity to do great good. Twenty-five years ago, the township modified its master plan and zoning to limit development and to protect the environment.
Power also brings the opportunity to do great harm and to distort the record.
When elected, Ms. Blake promised to limit development, to lessen the burden on the southern tier, and to petition the state legislature on affordable housing. Instead, the township committee signed agreements with developers to build 651 affordable rate houses, and another 2,881 market rate houses, all together, a 45 percent increase in Hopewell Township’s population (and traffic) over the next eight years.
On the PILOT, which Ms. Blake continues to claim is a township initiative rather than a tax abatement measure that the developer forced upon the township, her $100 million triumph is actually $93.5 million over 30 years, about $3 million per year. Do keep in mind that she is bragging about one side of the ledger sheet, and fails to mention that PILOT agreements steal revenue from the schools.
Ideally, she would have placed the interests of the township ahead of her steadfast devotion to party. A more balanced approach would have led to an intense interrogation of the terms of the PILOT agreement and prevented the theft of $56 million from the school district.
The other side of that ledger are the costs associated with the services required by that population explosion, which I have conservatively estimated at approximately $35 million per year. That figure does not include the cost of new school construction, which was required after the much more modest building boom at Brandon Farms.
Ms. Blake takes a shot at the 2015 budget increase, which she knows well was required by the horrific fire at the Public Works building that year.
She also reminds us how much there is to love about our township. On that, I fully agree. Unfortunately, her exuberant glee in walking trails and buying corn amid the township’s budding crises sounds to me far more like fiddling while the township is starting to burn.
To both candidates I say, be fully honest with the people of Hopewell Township. I’m not the only person listening.
Cheryl Edwards
Hopewell Township