Exactly why these tax abatements are a bad idea

Now, Johnny is on record saying some of the seed money downtown by the Healy Administration was probably needed to jump start downtown. Anymore, with real estate prices at their highest in a long time in Jersey City, they reek of patronage. The union workers all spill into council chambers, reeking of beer and cigarettes/blunts they drank and smoked that day (and we've well documented their workday proclivities) about what a great deal it is for us to keep them employed on our abatement dime to keep their bosses fat and rich. Council relents. We pay more.

Then infrastructure around town, now being used harder than at any time in city history, begins failing faster. We saw old pipes in Hoboken shut down the city for a few days. Mayor Dawn Zimmer has already floated the idea about taxpayers paying more to rebuild downtown critical infrastructure. In Jersey City, which has had it's share of crumbling roads and pipes, and will in the future; in fact it happened again yesterday. How will the city pay for this? City Council and Administration will, as we all know turn to those on city tax rolls to pay for the tens of (and probably hundreds) millions necessary to keep an old downtown and chundered Journal Square along with the neglected neighborhoods up and running and will ask those paying taxes to cover it.

There you go, the KRM, Toll, Goldman, Shuster, et al won't BE on the tax rolls as they should be for nearly as much as they are taking out of the city and dumping onto the infrastructure. These abatements the Jersey City council is always so in favor of are like Cayman Island tax dodges for these major "stakeholders" in our fair city. When the infrastructure starts coming due who do YOU think is going to be paying the bill:

A) Developers
B) Taxpayers
C) The Port Authority
D) The murals

Even with a reval coming as Debbie Harry once sang (and still does) One Way Or Another, the council will still be trying to cram more abatements through in 2016. Big decisions are to be made. Note we said are, not will.

Of course none of these critical decisions can or will be made until Mayor Fulop's vanity project, aka running for governor while forgetting he's mayor of anywhere, runs it's Tough Mudder course. An American mayor can't raise taxes just before a run for governor in any state so the infrastructure will continue to crumble, it will slow the property value rise, and make things worse when this finally gets addressed mmmm, maybe late 2017 or early 2018.

Raise the curtain on 2016 and strike up the band and awaaaaaay we go!