Standing room only at the Montclair Township Budget Hearing--thank you!

Here are a few talking points and ideas for writing emails to the council

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May 17, 2023

For the kids who are here tonight, if you are not here, please write to the council. Tell them, “No PILOTs for school, no votes for you!”

Bob Benecke and the town council want to convince you that PILOTs will not help the schools. Princeton gives PILOTs to schools, as does Cedar Grove and possibly many other towns we don’t know about.

Towns share PILOTs with schools because they care about education and understand that schools need and deserve non-tax sources of revenue to stabilize their staffing in the face of Chris Christie’s 2% tax increase cap and already very high taxes.

Don’t listen to Bob Benecke’s condescending mansplaining. Read the State Comptroller Report on tax abatements instead.

When the Township reserves a property for redevelopment, it guarantees a source of non-tax revenue for itself that it chooses not to share with the schools. It takes this property out of the tax rolls. Thus, it increases the school tax burden on all other taxpayers. If the Township shared a fair share of PILOTs with schools, the school tax levy should be adjusted accordingly.

Tell your council members: NO PILOTs FOR SCHOOLS, NO VOTES FOR YOU!

If Montclair had given the schools their fair share of non-affordable PILOTs, they would have received 2.6 million dollars in 2022. Demand your fair share! If you can’t be here, write to the council. Their emails are at the bottom of this post.

Bob Benecke says taxes will be raised if the township shares PILOTs with schools. He lies.

We come to every council meeting and see this council waste our money month in and month out. While they refuse to give money to schools, they give Viking stoves to the fire department! Come on!

The CFO and our risk manager proposed several money-saving changes in the past year.

This council decided not to adopt these schemes because they didn’t want to—they said no to changing their joint insurance fund to save your money, they refused to outsource crossing guards to save overtime in the police department, and, worse of all, they chose to subsidize fire protection services to Glen Ridge last year.

The Township is raising the Fire department budget by 8% in 2023, well above the 2% budget cap. How can the township afford to do this after lowering Glen Ridge’s fire services fee by 9%? How can they do this despite the 2% tax levy cap? They do this because they have non-tax sources of revenue that they are not sharing with the schools. PILOTs are not part of the tax levy. That, along with other revenue sources, is how the township can afford to hire new firefighters on the same week our teachers are dismissed.

Worse, they are not hiring new firefighters because we need them. They are hiring just because. You can read more about the dumpster fire that is the Montclair Fire Department here (thanks to Liz George). For months, residents and council members have demanded data to substantiate their budget requests, and they refuse to provide those data. Still, the council plans on increasing the fire department budget, staffing, and obscene 1.3 million dollars in overtime.

Please join us in telling the council—NO DATA, NO DOLLARS for the fire department. And PILOTs for schools TODAY!

If you are away from 205 Claremont Ave, come! There is plenty of time. If you cannot come, please write to your elected officials to demand PILOTs for schools and NO DATA, NO DOLLARS for the fire department.