Trenton-Ewing Tax Exempt Issues

Guess what?

Ewing's Mayor Jack Ball is reported to have asked Governor Christie, while schmoozing at the Governor's Mansion, if they could have State Aid in lieu of taxes because twenty percent of Ewing was occupied by tax exempt properties. A mere twenty percent? Extraordinary, my dear Mr. Ball, please wait your turn. The City of Trenton is home to seventy percent of all Mercer County non-profit tax exempts. Fifty percent of our city assets are tax exempt. If this is a competition, Trenton wins hands down.

Of course, we could join forces and lobby the Governor for attention together. That might be the best and most obvious course of action. And it is possible that someone has thought of this, but if so, I have not heard of it.

I personally have found Mr. Ball to be a singularly uncooperative individual. Aside from the terrible animal shelter kill policy that brought animal lovers to their feet, his refusal to send Farmers' Market vendors to our senior location presented me with some unnecessary challenges.

Some casual background: The Federal Government gives money to Agricultural Programs. Some bright light figured that these millions could do double duty if laundered through the country's senior citizens first. As the money was used by seniors, upgrading their access to fresh vegetables and fruits, it would eventually reach the farmers as originally intended. Thus the voucher program was born.

Federal monies of Aid to Agriculture are split up among the States. New Jersey's share is a couple of million dollars and is directed to senior citizens in the form of checks or "farm vouchers" which can only be used at farm markets, farm stands or directly at the farm. New Jersey vouchers are presently handed out by WIC and are income qualified. (By the way, I am told that income exempt WIC is in Ewing, Mr. Ball). Before Mercer County decided that WIC would be involved "for efficiency", vouchers were not supposed to be income qualified. The only requirement I recall in those days was that you had to be a senior citizen. I repeat, the main purpose of this bill was to aid farmers. The senior aspect was the "two birds for one stone" and would make for good political hay.

Seniors in the Trenton area have transportation issues. Since they have trouble with getting out to shop, the trucks delivered to us. We had no problem when the Farmer's Market first came out. The following year timing of delivery and selection of produce was not as desirable and sales dropped.

The next year Mr. Ball told me to get lost. I could not accept that and contacted the 4 H kids from Trenton. They were happy to come out and set up their striped canopy in our tree shaded car park. They had watermelons and lots of veggies that they grew themselves. We enjoyed their visits and invited them back but 4 H funding was cut back in 2009 and they were unable to deliver.

I was at the Farmers' Market one day in June. One of the vendors who had brought his truck out previously asked me why they were not invited back. I related that Mr. Ball had squelched the idea. The farmers got together among themselves and told me they would be pleased to come to us. The upshot was that we had a summer schedule of visits, we could tell our friends and families, and the trucks were almost always sold out. No thanks to Jack Ball.

I think the Trenton Mayoral runoff election is set now between Tony Mack and Manny Segura. Both candidates have had their medical issues so that concern is not uppermost in my thinking. Segura's office told me that Manny did not take a paycheck from the taxpayers the whole time he was a councilman and would turn his monies back into the treasury. If this is indeed the case, then electing Segura means an automatic saving of Six Hundred Thousand Dollars over four years. Holy smoke!

I wonder how Tony can top that. I have not seen a sky banner since my last trip to Long Beach Island and wonder how much it costs to hire one to fly over the city. I am sure that Tony got the best deal because he is in training to watch our finances.

Trenton needs a strong representative to present our issues to the Governor's Office. The next Mayor must be focused. If we do not get all our Capital Aid, we are going to have to take a hard look at all tax exempt assets in the city...

Seniors rock.