Dear Editor:
My wife and I attended the Mayor’s Roundtable at the Sheraton in Parsippany. We have been following the controversial issue of the so-called Payment In Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) program to redevelop the many empty office buildings in Parsippany.
We hoped to gain new insights from a moderated discussion among mayors of four nearby towns facing similar problems. What we got instead of an open discussion with an informed and neutral moderator was a pep rally led by a cheerleader, unanimous in their opinion that affordable, fair housing was an abomination led by horrible politicians in Trenton.
The mayors shared their tactics for fighting against court rulings meant to assure all New Jerseyans access to affordable housing in towns with good-paying jobs, but not one described their plan to provide good housing. One of them even likened his town to a business and low-income families as customers who would be money-losers for the town.
There was one surprising moment when the mayor of East Hanover said that his town never used a PILOT to redevelop business properties, as he found that businesses were willing to invest in his town without the extra tax break provided by the PILOT program. Parsippany’s Mayor Barberio has said that East Hanover would win the competition for business investment with Parsippany if we didn’t offer them a PILOT.
As promised, Monday night’s “roundtable” was not engaging or insightful. We learned that several local mayors were self-satisfied politicians devoted to keeping low-income people out of their towns and not interested in hearing the audience’s questions or opinions.
Mark Philhower and Gay Boyle
