Essex County Executive DiVincenzo responds to viewpoint of Newark Mayor Baraka

OPINION

There is no doubt that every county and municipal government and local school district are going through difficult financial times. I share the mayor’s frustration about the financial pressures we all face and the need for new recurring revenue sources, but I believe his focus on Essex County in his August 28th viewpoint in the NJ Globe is misguided.

When I inherited a $64 million deficit upon being sworn in, I did not complain. My team and I made the difficult decisions and worked hard to develop a plan to shore up our resources, continue to provide first-class services and balance our budget.

To this day, we keep a close eye on our budget throughout the year and begin crafting our upcoming year’s spending plan during July of the previous year. This has enabled us to present our budget on or before January 15th for the last 23 years. (In stark contrast, Newark has not introduced a budget earlier than June in the last 10 years and its budget last year was not introduced until August 28th.) This provides my directors and employees with a solid framework on how we spend and on what we spend, and lets our municipal partners know what they can expect from Essex County.

Our taxpayers have learned that they can expect Essex to be a thrifty government that does not spend beyond our means. We have kept tax increases to a minimum: Over the last 10 years, county property taxes have increased an average of just 1.07 percent! And over the last 24 years, we have the third lowest average tax increase among New Jersey’s 21 counties. We also placed ourselves on a debt diet by limiting how much we bond per year and refinancing debt at lower rates without extending the payoff date. All this has helped us reduce our debt, reduce the interest we pay on debt and transform our inherited junk bond rating into a AA+ rating, the highest bond rating in county history and just one step away from the gold standard AAA rating.

And just to set the record straight, the City of Newark does not pay Essex County property taxes – residential and commercial property owners pay Essex County taxes. State law requires municipalities to collect all property taxes payable to the municipality, public schools and county and then forward the payments to the schools and county. That money isn’t collected for Newark; it’s collected for the schools and county. There is no loss to Newark because it’s a pass-through payment. Which begs the question: Why is Newark making its taxpayers pay an extra $37 million? Total County taxes (which include the tax levy and Open Space) are only increasing $10 million. Newark collected an additional $30 million from its taxpayers without transferring that to the County as it is required by law, diverting it for city purposes, and then received a $30 million bail out from the State. This shell game only hurts Newark taxpayers.

I am truly sorry if the mayor doesn’t believe Essex County does enough for the City of Newark. I mean, we have invested over $211 million to revitalize just our parks within the city’s limits. We have preserved the Historic Essex County Courthouse, opened the Sheila Oliver DFAB Headquarters and the Wynona Lipman Family Court to provide residents accommodations where they are treated with dignity and respect at times when they are most vulnerable. We created additional open space by opening two new parks – Essex County Riverfront Park and Essex County Veterans Memorial Park – in Newark. Our two vocational schools in Newark – Donald Payne School and Newark Tech – are modern facilities where students, a majority of whom are from Newark, learn in state-of-the-art classrooms. Our Public Works Department has modernized bridges and intersections and paved our County roads, both in Newark and throughout the County. We provide a myriad of shared services operating the judicial system, jail, elections offices, social services, job training and Surrogate, all benefiting residents of Newark without the City bearing any expense. We also maintain our parks, buildings and roadways, and police them as well, at the County’s expense, which means there is no cost to the city.

And when the City of Newark was faced with a dramatic public health crisis in the summer of 2019 because of water service lines that were made with lead, it was my team and I who stepped in to provide $120 million in financing that enabled the city to expedite water line replacements. And during the pandemic, we were the agency that provided free testing and vaccinations to residents of Newark at our five COVID sites, two of which were in Newark at Essex County College and the Donald Payne School.

The mayor does point out that, according to state law, schools, hospitals, charities, houses of worship, universities and other governments are tax exempt, but he just singles out Essex County as being at fault for not paying municipal taxes. Under the mayor’s own formula, why weren’t they criticized and put on notice for not paying their fair share? In a similar circumstance, Essex County could have called the mayor out for never making statutorily mandated PILOT payments to the county until September 1^st when we received our first and very overdue payment of $2.4 million that barely scratches the surface of what we are owed. You see, when the city enters into a PILOT agreement with the developer, 5 percent of that is supposed to be paid to the County – none of which we have received to date.

Newark has done a disservice to its residents by delaying the city’s property tax revaluation for over seven years. This inaction has lowered Newark’s assessed to market equalization to less than 50 percent and imposed inordinate and totally avoidable tax responsibility on the citizens of Newark. Since the revaluation hasn’t been done, it’s hard to pinpoint what the total savings would be, but it’s estimated to be about $20 million.

We all feel squeezed financially and every year it gets tougher and tougher. But instead of labeling Essex County as the bad guy, you should have reached out and had a conversation with us first.

Mr. Mayor, you were an outspoken candidate in last year’s gubernatorial election. But, please, don’t use your soap box to demean what others have done only to deflect what you have not been able to do yourself. If you truly have aspirations of leading our state, then act like a statesman and have conversations and work toward solutions, lobby to change state legislation and funding formulas to benefit municipalities, instead of conducting blindsided attacks on the people who work hard for your residents.

I always end letters and speeches with “Putting Essex County First.” Those are more than just words to me. It’s about creating a culture that brings everyone together to work for our residents, solve problems and come up with new ideas. Mr. Mayor, my door is always open to continue Putting Essex County First.

Joseph N. DiVincenzo, Jr. is serving his sixth term as the Essex County Executive.