May 15,2016
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood Nj, a reader commented that , “hopefully the new Council pushes hard on challenging Valley’s not-for-profit status. If we can capture $4.5mn in annual property taxes from Valley for everything they own in Ridgewood, then the property tax burden on residents could be reduced. This would be enlightened tax policy from the new Council and smarter governance. They pay their CEO $2mn a year to run a single hospital – not a system – and acquire every building they can yet pay no property taxes?!?! Not fair to village residents who effectively subsidize their public safety services, snow plowing around the local roads by Valley’s properties (which get removed from rateables), etc. time to pay your fair share.”
New Jersey courts have established a three-part test that, in essence, provides that for an organization to be entitled to property tax exemption, it must show that:
1. it is organized exclusively for a charitable purpose (or other qualifying purpose enumerated in the statute);
2. its property is actually used for such a charitable purpose (or the specific qualifying purpose applicable to that organization); and
3. its use and operation of the property is not for profit.
Morristown Hospital failed the third test, so will Valley.
Use Valley taxes to make Ridgewood affordable for retired residents.
After 29 years of paying taxes I am done! It has been brought up before. The town will go bankrupt if they have only new residents with children.
Could also be used to cover the lawsuits.
Why not include all houses of worship they own a lot of tax free properties?
because most of them do many things for the community and do not cost the town anything near what Valley does
A few of points:
-The football coach at Rutgers University makes $2 million a year (guaranteed) for coaching 60+ players…and everyone keeps making a big deal of Audrey Myers making $2 million a year for running a hospital which has over 5,000 employees. Rutgers is a non profit by the way.
If you want Audrey Myers job and salary so bad why don’t you apply for her job.
-The houses that Valley has purchased near the hospital are used as temporary housing for new employees moving in from out of the area. Valley pays property taxes on these houses just like everyone else. But unlike most everyone else, there aren’t many kids moving into those temporary houses filling spots in our schools.
-And finally, the $4.5 million figure for their “fair share” of the costs for police, fire and snow plowing? Really? Everyone, including the judge who will ultimately decide what if anything they pay in taxes, knows that the majority of Ridgewood’s municipal budget goes to the schools. Guess what, Valley doesn’t have any students enrolled in the Ridgewood Public School System. We’ll be lucky if we get a million, not chump change, but not the $4.5 million pipe dream.
re- read the Morris town decision
12:31 hi Gwenn or mr. Gwenn
Shut up.
Valley is a business. Churches are not. That is why Valley should pay taxes.
12:31, you are stupid. Plain and simple stupid.
As per your logic, everyone who does not have kids in the school system should not pay school portion of the taxes?
I don’t think it matters that Valley doesn’t have any “students” in school. They could be required to pay taxes to support the schools like other commercial properties do. That is the reason why towns with a lot of businesses generally have a lower tax burden.
12:31- Do you really think the student logic you are using had ANYTHING to do with this $4.5 million figure they came up with ?
Valley’s main campus would be rated for tax purposes at over $4 million per year. Given the statement made in Tuesday’s election, there would be popular support behind pursing this revenue using any and all means necessary.
12:31 is trying to raise a lot of strawman arguments. This is not about anyone making $x amount of money – this is about a business paying the town for using its resources.
Comparing Valley – a business that charges market rates to its customers – to some non-business entities (like churches) that do not charge their customers and actually provide discounted services to many – is bizarre.
When my child was born at Valley, they sent me a bill for $30k. My insurance company paid it but if I did not have insurance, I would be on the hook for it. That $30k is very very comparable to all other hospitals in the area – nonprofit or otherwise.
So Valley is just another business that charges customers to make money. I do not see why that makes them so deserving of not paying the town for the services that they utilize.
No one is asking them to be penalized for making money. Just charge them the same way any other business in town is charged.
Tax Court Rules Against Hospital in Morristown Property Tax Case – See more at: https://www.njnonprofits.org/PropertyTax_MorristownMedical.html#sthash.MrXcO5xx.dpuf
Property owners don’t pay taxes based upon what services they use.
They pay taxes based upon assessed value.
12:31PM I think you’ve got this wrong. Property taxes are based on the value of your property, not what services you use or how muc.h. Rateables help to keep taxes down on the non commercial residents.
Ok everyone in the echo chamber, you got me! Just please don’t blame “Obama Care” when your health insurance premiums go up!
BTW – “Obama Care” is private insurance despite what the name implies… Private insurance with safe guards built in like insurance companies can’t drop your coverage after paying years of premiums because you get cancer. Or because you’re newborn has heath issues.
9:02 – Huh?
9:18
Just making the point that everyone’s complaining about health insurance premiums and deductibles going up (not like they weren’t going up before but whatever) and local governments trying to plug their budget messes on the backs of hospitals isn’t going to help the cause, that’s all.
Slam dunk case against Valley’s not-for-status using the Morristiwn precedent. $4mn is 10% of our annual municipal budget. Let’s just hope the new Council has the foresight to use part of the proceeds from annual property taxes from Valley to reduce the property tax burden on home owners Residents deserve smarter taxation policy.
Funny, the Valley flack at 12:31 is trying to anchor the annual property tax number st $1mn, it’s a simple negotiating trick versus the $4.5mn in assessed value. But here’s my question: if the Valley people already know they should be paying a MINIMUM of $1mn per year in taxes, then are they just laughing at the Village and its residents by paying nothing today? Suggests their arrogance knows no bounds? They make profits and they should pay taxes, it’s not rocket science. Can we go after them for back taxes, too?
9:02 & 9:33 – you seem to be missing the point and bringing up Obama care is just trying to change the subject. Valley should be paying taxes to the Village. 67% of the electorate rejected the pro Valley, pro developer platform. Time for them to pay up
9:02 – Now you are giving the game away. We can very well guess who you are!
Obamacare promised to REDUCE everyone’s insurance premiums by $2500. Of course, we all know that it was a false promise thanks to Jonathan Gruber – the most honest man in Washington.
Insurance premiums are going up for all kinds of reasons. Obamacare simply added to them by increasing the number of procedures covered, flattening out risk based pricing further, capping total out of pockets and drawing in a population that is only signing up for insurance when required for expensive treatments.
Property taxes paid by so-called charitable hospitals is not even #100 on that list!
9:33/9:02 – Deductibles are going up because employers are trying to reduce total cost of plan to prevent hitting the Caddilac tax threshold – which would trigger another of the Obamacare taxes (which Gruber particularly gloated about). One way of doing that is to increase deductibles.
9:33
Valley’s tax exempt status does nothing to keep my health insurance premiums down. Valley is a very profitable business. Why do you think they have so much money to buy real estate, bring lawsuits and pay execs so well?
There is no business that I want to financially support because indirectly I think it would benefit society. I have my own family.
10:06- The answer to your first question is yes, and the answer to the second is without a doubt. Atlantic Health (parent of Morristown) agreed to pay about 15 million plus in back taxes. Why not Valley ?
Excellent Bill H, back taxes plus future taxes would make a large contribution to our Village with a $102mn BoE budget and a $45mn municipal budget. Now if we can just get the teachers and public safety employees to agree to “bronze” level care (equivalent to what most private sector employers offer) as defined by the ACA so as to avoid Village taxpayers having to bear the cost of the 40% excise tax on “platinum” health benefit premiums from 2020. Why should taxpayers have to pay for their own health benefit premiums and then also subsidize excessive “platinum” benefits + a 40% extra tax on those plans from 2020 for public sector employees? That’s unfair.
Bill H, back taxes would make sense here. I just hope our new Council and BOE have the guts to reduce property taxes with the proceeds from back taxes and future annual property taxes from Valley. $4.5mn would be 3% of our combined BOE + Village budgets, so cut taxes by 1.5% and use 1.5% for debt reduction.
“Property taxes are based on the value of your property, not what services you use or how much. Rateables help to keep taxes down on the non commercial residents.” Completely ass backwards. So what your saying is me being retired and no longer having children in the school system means nothing? I should continue to pay based on the assessed value of my property and pay for services i do not use? So you can have a rateable? So I need to provide YOU with a subsidy? That’s the problem with taxation on a municipal, state and federal levels. It’s absurd. A consumption tax across the board will solve many issues not only here, but across this great country. Finally a solution to the greedy corrupt unions that have a stranglehold on all of us.
stop voting for idiots and it could be changed
But James, it’s the unions who vote for the idiots like Sweeney, Sarlo and Prieto in Trenton to buy their support for tightening their greedy stranglehold on the rest of us…. They have a massive union vote that’s organized and votes for chosen candidates en masse