Page 8 THE VILLADOM TIMES III • May 18, 2011 Waldwick The Waldwick Mayor and Council want the State of New Jersey to start paying what the borough is due for having the Public Service Electric & Gas power plant on Hopper Avenue, and last week adopted a resolution asking that the state budget Council wants to get its due from the state “The state calls it state aid, but it’s not. It’s a utility tax. It’s quite a large chunck of money, and the facility is in our town. They don’t pay property taxes; the utility tax is something we are entitled to,” said Councilman Don Sciolaro. “I’m glad you are trying to get the money,” former Mayor Frank McKenna, present in the audience, told the council. “Waldwick is acutely hurt by the state policy. We suffer the burden of having such a large public service facility. They use our services. It’s ratable land, and we are getting no ratables. Keep up the pressure,” he said. from now own provide for the full statutory distribution of Energy Tax and Consolidated Municipal Property Tax Receipts Aid (CMPTRA) revenue replacement funding. Borough Administrator Gary Kratz estimates that the borough was shortchanged $1.5 million this year in cost of living increases, and a $6 million shortfall over the last 10 years. He said the borough should be getting an additional $5.5 million from the state if the formulas were being properly applied. The borough now gets $2.5 million in state aid, but in reality it is revenue replacement funding, 100 percent of which should be coming back to the municipality. Kratz said that when the PSE&G switching station was built, the borough had the expectation of receiving a bigger share of the energy tax receipt taxes; instead, he said the borough’s share, and that of all other municipalities in the state, has been reduced. to the municipalities, which provide services to utility facilities and from whence come utility profits. The State of New Jersey never honored that commitment, immediately and annually diverting large and growing portions of the proceeds to its own general fund, the resolution notes. Other changes to the law in suc- ceeding years were not honored either, the resolution points out, further allowing the state to skim moneys due the municipalities and use them to balance the state budget. The resolution asks for an immediate end to the State’s reliance on the municipal property tax relief revenues to balance its budget and address other priorities. Waldwick’s resolution states that the Energy Tax Receipts Property Tax Relief program - the direct descendant of the Public Utility Gross Receipts and Franchise Tax, which was a tax on regulated public utilities, was originally assessed and collected at the municipal level and the town kept the proceeds. In the early 1980s, at the request and for the convenience of the tax paying utilities, the State became the collection agent for this assessment, and the law that effected this change promised that the proceeds would be distributed back Model students With Brad A team of eighth grade students from The Village School in Waldwick attended the United Nations in New York City to represent South Africa at Montessori Model United Nations. 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