FROM DAILY RECORD (Gannett Co., Inc.)
12/18/05
BY NAVID IQBAL
DAILY RECORD
Panel to tackle residents'concerns about Special Improvement District
The East Hanover Township council-sponsored special improvement district workshop will take place at East Hanover Township Hall, 411 Ridgedale Ave. at 7 p.m. Monday. For more information, contact Beth Lippman at (973) 740-8815.
EAST HANOVER -- The township council's Monday night workshop on a proposed special improvement district is expected to draw a sizeable crowd.
Nearly a week after residents defeated a touchy and disputed $2 million school referendum, business owners and concerned residents are expected to fill town hall for the special improvement district workshop sponsored by the East Hanover Township Council.
The workshop grew out of what Mayor William Agnellino described as an air of "misinformation."
"There is so much misinformation being spread around the town that it is important to present the facts by a panel (of) experts in the field of SIDs,"Agnellino said in a prepared statement.
A SID or special improvement district is a designation where businesses pay surtax for aesthetic changes to a town's downtown. SIDs are intended to promote and develop a town's business areas. A special tax would be assessed to the towns' businesses. There are approximately 70 SIDs in New Jersey. Hackettstown is newest SID in the state.
Ordinance in place
The township council already has an ordinance to levy the tax on commercial and industrial property owners. When the ordinance was first introduced, it would have taxed all business property owners in East Hanover .005 percent of their property's total assessed value. A later proposal adjusted the tax so that businesses that would benefit the most would pay a higher share.
Expected to attend Monday's meeting will be members of the Hanover Area Chamber of Commerce, which represent about 75 East Hanover businesses.
While some, like the chamber's president Steve Brisgel, are opposed to how council is going about pursuing the SID --what he has described as the lack of reaching out to the chamber -- other chamber members, like vice-president Ron Russo, believe the SID tax is "taxation without representation."
The SID workshop will feature a panel of people familiar with SIDs other towns.
The SID workshop panel will include Michael Fabrizio, executive director of the Morristown Partnership, which is Morristown's SID; Robert Goldsmith, an attorney with Greenbaum, Rowe, Smith, Davis LLP, who successfully represented Morristown in a lawsuit filed by three business owners opposed to the SID; Steven Santo of Woodman Properties; Joseph Steiner, former executive director of the Suburban Chambers of Commerce of Summit; and East Hanover SID coordinator Beth Lipman.