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Hackensack NJ, the city has reached a settlement with the company that controls the Sears property on Main Street, paving the way for a potential redevelopment project there to move forward.
Continue reading Hackensack Reaches Deal on Development of Iconic Sears Building Property
N.J. towns may push hospitals to pay up; more could seek property tax deals with non-profits
NOVEMBER 11, 2015, 11:14 PM LAST UPDATED: WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 2015, 11:22 PM
BY LINDY WASHBURN
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD
Cash-strapped local governments around the state may be looking at non-profit hospitals with new eyes, now that the non-profit Morristown Medical Center has agreed to pay its hometown $15.5 million over the next decade to settle demands for property taxes.
A judge in state tax court took away the hospital’s property-tax exemption in June, declaring that it operated more like a for-profit company than a charitable institution. Rather than appeal the decision, the hospital negotiated an agreement with the town, which was approved Tuesday night.
“Clearly, this is an open invitation for a number of towns,” Frank Ciesla, head of the health-law practice at Giordano, Halleran & Ciesla, said Wednesday. “I think you’re going to see a lot more in the way of litigation.”
Non-profit hospitals are among the largest landowners in some municipalities. Local governments could begin by assessing taxes on their property, leading to a series of appeals as hospitals seek to clarify their status, he said.
The Valley Hospital’s tax liability would be $4.5 million in Ridgewood if its main campus was not exempt, and $360,000 in Paramus, according to local records. (It already pays taxes on some other properties.) Hackensack University Medical Center reached a settlement this year of various tax issues that is to result in a $5.1 million payment to the city treasury over three years. Holy Name Medical Center in Teaneck, Englewood Hospital and Medical Center and St. Joseph’s Healthcare System’s hospitals in Paterson and Wayne all are exempt from local property taxes.
Ridgewood Mayor Paul Aronsohn said that it hasn’t been possible to raise the issue of taxes — or a payment in lieu of taxes — with Valley during the last few years because of the hospital’s pending application for approval of its building plans.
Reader states Why on earth doesn’t the Village ask Valley for a payment in lieu of taxes (PILOT) is beyond me
Why on earth doesn’t the Village ask Valley for a payment in lieu of taxes (PILOT) is beyond me… all Valley does is present ridiculous expansion plans based on ordinance 3066 -which former Mayor Pfund passed to allow them to apply for exceptions to the Village Master Plan – then waste Villagers time and money, and then sue us. Then they pay their CEO $2 million a year for running a single hospital – whereas the others on that list run hosital systems – and they can’t even pay their fair share of the costs for Villages services including Police, Fire, EMT, sanitation, snow removal, road and pothole repair, etc. Some non-profit that is, they’re a bad neighbor.