A new plan was unveiled to fund the Centre Pompidou with a tax aimed at the highest-valued properties in Journal Square.
The details of this new tax-the-rich scheme were discussed in an hour-long community meeting last week inside the council chambers. However, fewer than 10 of the roughly 85 affected property owners showed up, many claiming not to have received the mailed invitation, according to Councilman Rich Boggiano, who was present.
The ordinance states that the Special Improvement District tax will cost certain assessed properties $120 per residential unit, which is expected to earn $1.2 million in its first year. The tax will only be levied on properties valued at $4 million or more and it excludes apartment buildings with four or fewer units. Jersey City Redevelopment Agency counsel Joe Baumann, who hosted the meeting at City Hall, said he expects that a $2 million property would likely pay $2,000 annually.
Last Thursday, the City Council voted to table the ordinance on second reading, with Boggiano’s suggestion that another community meeting be planned. “This has caused so much disruption to the people in the community,” Boggiano said.
Even though only the highest-valued properties would be taxed, those in attendance at the meeting in the council chambers expressed concern that the costs would be passed on to tenants at a time when increased living costs are crushing residents.
“It’s tone deaf at a time when people are struggling already to build in an extra cost that would be paid by a renter every month,” said Emory Edwards, president of the Hudson County Chamber of Commerce. “I don’t think it would be absorbed by a business.”
Baumann presented the findings of an impact study that found that the museum will draw 245,000 visitors per year and the influx of tourists would be a boon to the surrounding neighborhood.
Justin Yaroni, owner of an Academy Street property, was doubtful about the study’s projection that visitors to the museum would spend $14 million on local businesses. “People are going to visit the museum and they’re going to go right back into the Path station – maybe they’ll get a coffee,” he said.
It is important to note that city officials—not representatives of Centre Pompidou—have been tasked with selling the public on the museum’s importance and function within the community. Jersey Digs has reached out to the museum’s Paris-based press office and Charles Aubin, who was named co-director of Centre Pompidou Jersey City, but has received no reply.
Another touted benefit is that property values will likely increase 12.5 percent as a result of these investments. But Councilman Rich Boggiano, who represents Journal Square, noted that taxes are tied to property value, meaning all properties within this zone—not merely the ones subject to the tax—will eventually pay more in taxes.
“I don’t want my property taxes to go up,” Boggiano said.
Boggiano personified the collective grievance of Journal Square residents, who, despite the massive transformation of their neighborhood through development, claim to have received little in return.
“All of these buildings have gone up, but our taxes are going up, up, and up,” Boggiano said. “People have just about had it.”
Baumann was limited in his answers to residents, and Boggiano pressed him on this when the two met again at last week’s caucus meeting.
“I have all the answers I have today,” Baumann said. “I don’t have any answers that we don’t have today.”
John Metro, city business administrator at the caucus meeting, reasoned that higher taxes was the byproduct of turning Journal Square into a cultural destination. “If we want additional resources like the arts, like the Loews, those will always spur additional increases in value – that’s how the market works,” said John Metro, city business administrator at the caucus meeting.
Despite the cost of the proposed Centre Pompidou Jersey City, Baumann said the new facility will be more than just a museum — it will also be a community center. “One thing that we haven’t done a good job of explaining so far is that the Pompidou is not a bunch of modern art hanging on the wall,” he said.
