By Michael Hill
Correspondent
“Everyone keep saying, ‘OK I want my taxes to be reduced.’ Well why don’t you step up, step in and speak up?” That’s what Emily Vu said to a nearly empty city council chambers two weeks ago. Vu chairs the citizen-led Atlantic City Tax Appealers (ACTA).
The economic downturn for the casino industry has led to property taxes here soaring by more than 50 percent in two years.
“I will want to move out of this town if I have to keep paying the kind of taxes that I’m having to pay,” said Liberty and Prosperity member Robert Fleisher.
Part of the burden on landlords comes from casinos that appeal their taxes and win and the city — to reimburse the casinos — borrows money and spends years paying back the bonds with interest.
“Fifteen percent of the budget in 2014 is for debt service. That’s insane,” Fleisher said.
For retirees on fixed income, Linda Steele said, “They should not have to leave their homes because they can’t afford the tax payments. That’s unacceptable.”
This week, the school board announced it’s closing in December an alternative high school of 50 students and 14 teachers to save money.
The district collects 36 cents of every tax dollar here and it costs nearly $26,000 a year to educate one student in Atlantic City.
Vu says she pays less than one-fifth of that to send one of her children to a Catholic school with performance results that are five times better than the public system.
“Something is wrong with the current system,” Vu said.
While the Tax Appealers express frustration at city leaders, they do the same at the state for not making Atlantic City family friendly years ago.
“Nobody wanted to hear that they wanted to put all their eggs in the casino basket,” said Steele.
And now with the governor’s plan to revitalize Atlantic City, Steele said, “It’s kind of like somebody coming in to your house and telling you how you have to live without even really talking to you.”
Part of the plan calls for an emergency manager — on top of a state monitor who’s been watching the city’s budget and spending for eight years.
Other parts call for creating another development agency, deferring pension payments and regionalizing and shrinking the police and fire departments.
“If there are things that we the city could do together to reduce costs, maybe we don’t have the luxury of saying no,” Vu said.
One council member says the state has been collecting millions of dollars from Atlantic City for 30 years.
“I don’t know what they did with that money but if you give me $60, $50 million a year to fix the city, I would wrap this city in gold,” said Councilman Rizwan Malik.
“When we first started our group, I said Atlantic City had been raped over and over again. Now, I hope, that our little synopsis to this whole story won’t be how they got away with murder,” said ACTA Co-Chair Alma Johnson.