Township Council Responds to the Issue of Tax Abatements

[Disclosure: This blog is written from my perspective as both a candidate for a seat on Gloucester Township Council and as a concerned citizen of Gloucester Township with questions and concerns about reckless spending and business as usual in Gloucester Township.]

As election season approaches, we appear to be suffering a credibility problem in Gloucester Township. Various voices are sending mixed messages and all this proves to be very confusing to the township residents, taxpayers, and voters.

From the GT Patch’s editor Bill Duhart’s news story of 26 July 2013, “Tax Abatement Considered for Gloucester Premium Outlets”, we read that the mayor “said this week Gloucester Township is considering offering the developers of Gloucester Premium Outlet a payment in lieu of taxes, or PILOT, agreement.” Bill Duhart went on to actually quote the mayor and posted the following statement by the mayor: “One of the reasons they are looking at this area is it’s a redevelopment that could possibly afford a PILOT. Under the redevelopment law it comes with a PILOT.” Those two sentences, rather than an assessment of what the mayor said as written above are identified as a direct quote. Based on the evidence, I have no recourse other than to believe that is what the mayor said.

I have no doubt that Mr. Duhart quoted the mayor correctly. The fact is, however, that I am precluded from checking the statement in any way because the mayor seems to have gone into hiding and does not respond to questions posted to his two township provided email addresses. I would love for the mayor to respond to the question of whether he is considering an offer for an abatement but no response seems forthcoming. Upon taking office, Mr. Mayer claimed that his administration would be marked by a transparency that, by implication, was previously missing in the execution of the office of the mayor, however, he seems to have fooled us on that one.

Looking for help elsewhere on this issue brings us to the 12 August 2013 Township Council meeting. Unfortunately, Mr. Mayer’s gem of the Citizen’s Access to Council meetings through the Live Stream was malfunctioning, as it often is, this time lacking an audio feed, so I was at a loss to follow the meeting. When the audio finally came on-line I tried to follow along and piece together some of what might have happened earlier.

I had actually submitted a question about the tax abatement issue via email earlier in the day because I knew I would be unable to attend in person but due to the audio malfunction I was unable to hear my question read or hear the response from council. When the audio finally picked up I did hear some back and forth about the possibility of a tax abatement for the Premium Outlet site.

Mr. Mercado, V.P. of Council, led the meeting in the absence of Council President Bianchini and was asked whether council was considering a tax abatement for the Outlets project. Mr. Mercado confirmed that Council would have the final say on any offer reducing taxes to the site but stated that Council as the governing body of Gloucester Township was “against offering any PILOT to the developer,” as was quoted in “Council Opposed to Tax Abatement for Gloucester Premium Outlets” published 13 August 2013 as a report of the August 12th meeting.

So there you have it from the mouth of Mr. Mercado that the council in total is opposed to the idea of tax abatements especially to what would be considered, in Mr. Mercado’s words, “a prime site located on Route 42.” And I have to agree, there is no need to entice an investor to develop such a site; rather this is the kind of location businesses would die to locate into.

So, where, you might ask, is the disconnect? Mr. Mercado was pressed on the subject of an abatement being offered to the developers of the Outlets and as evidence that it was in the offing was pointed to Mr. Duhart’s above published article in the Patch where Mr. Duhart quoted the mayor as to the PILOT program being in play. At that point, and fortunately the audio was now up, Mr. Mercado laughed, he chuckled out loud, and said he knew nothing about the article and statements made by the mayor on the Patch and that if someone wanted any further information on that subject they should talk to Mr. Duhart.

If you saw that on the Live Stream or happened to be at the meeting, I don’t know how you took it but, in my opinion, there were some aspersions being cast as to who said what. And here is a further point to be made. We as citizens, residents, and taxpayers of Gloucester Township have no recourse at this point but to try and get news as to what is happening in township government from the Patch due to the refusal of the mayor to respond to questions that might seem critical of what he is doing. I can’t remember the last time I saw the mayor at council but he wasn’t at the meeting in question and he wasn’t at the meeting before that. In fact, the last time I remember seeing the mayor at a meeting he was being questioned by a resident and from what I observed he doesn’t take to that very kindly.

So, when Mr. Mayer is questioned in council he seems to push off the questions to his subordinates and he refuses to answer any email I send him, thus are we forced to get whatever news we can about what goes on here in the Patch. What then is the possibility that Mr. Mercado will rethink his jibe to go ask Bill Duhart about what the mayor said and look into it himself and get back to the resident who asked the question? That is his job, after all, isn’t it?

Maybe after reading this you can understand why I feel compelled to run for township council myself and I encourage you to come out on November 5th and vote for some needed change in Gloucester Township by voting for the Gloucester Township FIRST mayoral/council team of Brown, DiBartolo, Kline and Pauli.

See you in November.

Visit us at: http://www.gloucestertownshipfirst.com