This NJ mayor working hard to LOWER your taxes

Parsippany is the largest town in Morris County and among the largest suburban towns in our state.

It's considered the largest corporate center in New Jersey and offsets residential taxes by encouraging and facilitating a vibrant corporate community.

Mayor Jamie Barberio who is doing an outstanding job leading the town, joined me on the show this week to discuss his next focus on increasing revenue and helping keep taxes down.

It's called "Payment In Lieu of Taxes" or PILOT for short and it's a way to incentivize businesses to relocate and take up vacant corporate space. Essentially the program is designed to allow the redeveloper to make improvements to the property and pay an annual payment instead of additional real estate taxes.

As the rental income increases, the payments increase. At this point, Parsippany is experiencing a vacancy rate of more than 20%, that's property that is not producing revenue for the township.

In order to fix it, the Mayor is embracing the PILOT program. If he's successful and the council votes to approve this week, the town can start to recover the million dollars they lost in tax disputes over the past year.

What's interesting is that a few members of the school board and one council member adamantly oppose the program. One of the reasons is that the BOE doesn't get a direct payment from PILOT payments.

They do get 63 cents on every dollar of real estate taxes. In conversation with Mayor Barberio, we learned that what they are not telling people is that even though the town lost a million, the BOA doesn't have to cough up the $630,000 they already received!

And the companies are not exempt from Real Estate taxes, they still pay their fair share on the value of the land.

PILOT programs for municipalities are an excellent solution to stopping the flow of business out of state. We have to do everything possible to increase local revenue, keep local taxes down and encourage job creators to stay in New Jersey.

Mayor Barberio is one of the many mayors across New Jersey who get it and we wish him continued success.

He's likely to be running for re-election in 2025 and has my full support.

The post above reflects the thoughts and observations of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Bill Spadea. Any opinions expressed are Bill's own. Bill Spadea is on the air weekdays from 6 to 10 a.m., talkin’ Jersey, taking your calls at 1-800-283-1015.

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