YOUR TURN - Don't Raise My Taxes!

There are many ingredients that are necessary for a successful downtown. One of them is a sense of community. In Metuchen, we are lucky to have a free local newspaper dropped at our doorstep - the Sentinel. Community newspaper serve an important purpose: they inform readers about business openings and closings, sales at stores, local government news and public notices, hometown sports, and they provide a place for small town groups to advertise their activities. The real estate section peaks your curiosity about the price of the house for sale down the street, and the classified ads are helpful in finding a job, handyman, financial services, healthcare, general merchandise, car or truck, a pet, or business service. An important service of community newspapers is that they provide a forum for citizens to express their opinion in the letters to the editor, guest column, and editorial sections. I was fortunate to have a guest column published in the YOUR TURN of the April 20, 2016, Edison, Metuchen, Woodbridge edition of the Sentinel (www.gmnews.com). In my "Small business owner opposes Metuchen Downtown Alliance" column, there is a detailed explanation of the MDA and reasons why I do not think it is the right approach for downtown Metuchen. The MDA proponents say, "We need a plan for downtown Metuchen" - which I have yet to see. This column is long because although I could just say, "Don't raise my taxes" - which everyone understands - there's more to it than that. Now it's YOUR TURN! Educate yourself about the MDA, use your brain (FYI there's a crossword puzzle within the Sentinel), THINK, and attend the Monday, May 2, 2016 7:30 PM at Metuchen Borough Hall PUBLIC HEARING. It's your turn to speak out, BE AN ACTIVE PART OF YOUR COMMUNITY! Here's the column...educate yourself...read on... Small Business Owner Opposes Metuchen Downtown Alliance The Borough of Metuchen is considering approving a Special Improvement District (SID) in downtown Metuchen. In the State of New Jersey, municipalities are empowered to create SID's and assign a District Management Corporation to manage the resulting tax assessments and provide enhanced services to those commercial businesses and properties in the defined district. Over a year ago, an ad hoc stakeholder team was formed to research the formation of a SID in Metuchen, which they propose to call the "Metuchen Downtown Alliance (MDA)." The proposed MDA is a new $275,000 per year taxpayer-funded bureaucracy. In the first 5 years, $1,250,000 of hard-earned taxpayer money will be spent. The two sources of funding are: 1) A real estate tax increase on all commercial properties within the MDA that is projected to increase to about 5% in 2020. The MDA's new tax increase is in addition to Metuchen's typical 2+% annual property tax increases. 2) Revenues from the Metuchen Parking Authority will also be contributed to the MDA on an annual basis. In the first 5 years, $600,000 of Metuchen Parking Authority money, which ultimately belongs to the citizens of Metuchen, is projected to be funneled into the MDA. For over 100 years, the Borough of Metuchen has had the nickname "Brainy Boro." Promotional items with an "I Love Brainy Boro" logo are being distributed around town to get the word out to the citizens of Metuchen to pay attention to what is going on. The stakeholders are well-intentioned and have put a lot of time and effort into their proposal. On the surface it sounds like a good idea, but it's just fluff. What exactly is the MDA going to do? Let's use our brains, look more closely, and I think you will see that the MDA is not the solution to vacant restaurants, stores, and offices in downtown Metuchen. Here's why: 1) 50% of the annual $275,000 budget, $137,000, is for staff, office rental, and volunteer management. The executive director and assistant don't work for peanuts. How will the executive director recruit new businesses for the district? Where is the written plan outlining exactly what the staff are going to do? The Metuchen Chamber of Commerce already has a website that promotes the events and member businesses in all of Metuchen. Do we need to create a new bureaucracy to schedule events in the new piazza? 2) One of the functions of the MDA is the marketing of downtown Metuchen. I have spoken to numerous small business owners in the proposed MDA and they are not interested in a new tax to pay for "group" advertising. The Internet allows them to target market their unique customer base using tools like Groupon, Facebook, online dining deals, email, social media, etc. 3) 27% of the annual $275,000 budget, $63,250, is for capital improvements. The Borough of Metuchen council decided that the Pearl Street parking lot should be redeveloped. That's a done deal, but where is the vision for the rest of the downtown area? $63,250 per year is not enough money to redo the dated downtown streetscape. The Metuchen Borough Council will be in charge of redoing the sidewalks, parking meters, and parking lots, in one cohesive design, to make the entire area an attractive successful showpiece—not the MDA. 4) The balance of $74,250 is for maintenance, cleaning, recruitment, holiday decorating, and greenery. Do we need to create a new bureaucracy to manage these functions? The businesses in the MDA already pay very high property taxes. Why can't the Borough of Metuchen perform these functions? The stakeholders gloss over the fact that in the State of New Jersey Special Improvement District enabling legislation, the word "improvement" means the rehabilitation and redevelopment of land or property, including demolition, clearance, removal, relocation, renovation, alteration, construction, reconstruction, installation or repair of a building, street, highway, alley, service or other structure or improvement. Small business owners fear this type of "improvement" legislation because it often takes the form of dictated controls, obstacles, and even eminent domain, and puts more of their hard-earned money into the bureaucracy's coffers. Doesn't it make sense to leave this money in the hands of the small business owners and let them make their own improvements? The affected property owners do not seem to have the ability to legally "veto" the creation of the MDA. The Metuchen Borough Council is tentatively holding a public hearing on May 2nd, 2016 at 7:30 PM at the Metuchen Borough Hall on the proposed ordinance and then with just 4 yes votes, it's a done deal! The only way to block the adoption of the ordinance is to exercise political pressure. I have been actively handing out "I Love Brainy Boro" promotional items to raise awareness about the proposed MDA and get like-minded citizens to speak out in opposition to the proposed MDA ordinance. I am a small business owner, life-long Metuchen resident, and have over 40 years of business experience. I have worked for large corporations, various small businesses, and even a yarn shop (The Knit Kit) on Main Street when I was in high school. Times and tastes change. In the April 6, 2016, Sentinel's, "Business owners urge downtown alliance in boro" article, Eric Berger, a stakeholder, is quoted as saying, "with the MDA they hope to bring in diverse, not competing businesses." If you owned an antiques store or gift shop, do you think you are likely to have more or less foot traffic if you are the only store of that type in a downtown? If there are several similar stores, are your competitor's customers (who are shopping for antiques or gifts) likely to visit your store too? Have you noticed that within a mile of each other on Route 27 in Metuchen, there are numerous successful motorcycle and power sports dealerships? A misguided MDA did not make this happen. Risk-taking small business owners made the decision to set up shop there. Competition is good for consumers because it makes the business owners play their "A" game and it actually attracts customers to a retail area—they will drive to look at a vast selection. Businesses need to quickly adapt and take advantage of this Internet enabled economy. Burdening small businesses with new taxes, regulations, controls, and slow-moving bureaucracy is not the answer. Overreaching government is painful. My family's office rental business, Victorian Office Rentals, has numerous tenants that are not happy about hearing that their rents are potentially going up, given that they do not perceive any benefit from the proposed MDA. Located on the "other side of the railroad tracks," they question the overreach of the proposed Metuchen Downtown Alliance. I am optimistic that the pieces of the puzzle that are needed to revitalize downtown Metuchen already exist in the Brainy Boro. The first aid squad, police, and fire departments have created and continually maintain a safe living environment. Excellent public and private schools, and pre-schools, give parents options on how to best educate their children. JFK Medical Center is nearby as well as excellent physicians, healthcare professionals, and medical and diagnostic facilities. Metuchen has wonderful merchants, professionals, and small business owners, a train station, theater, library, houses of worship, a walkable downtown, Chamber of Commerce, Recreation Department, diverse population, and great groups of volunteers. Together they offer a wide range of educational, sporting, musical, artistic, shopping, dining, and fun events; a rich cultural environment in which to meet your neighbors, raise children, and grow old together. All of the above are the ingredients that are needed for a successful town—a brainy boro! Raising the cost of doing business in the downtown district is not the answer. What can we as citizens do? Join me and speak out against the MDA at council meetings and the public hearing, which is tentatively scheduled to take place May 2, 2016 7:30 PM, at the Borough Council meeting. Talk to or email borough council members. They have the power, funds, and staff to make our downtown infrastructure better and cleaner—not the proposed MDA, which will only cause confusion and make the rents downtown higher. We all love the brainy boro. There is always room for improvement, let's put our heads together, use our brains, and as a community make Metuchen the wonderful place that we all know that it truly is. Nancy Jessen Metuchen, New Jersey