A standing room only crowd was present at the most recent Town Council meeting. The reason for most of the crowd was the recognition of 5th Graders involved in student government at Beeler, Jaggard, Rice, Van Zant and Marlton Elementary schools.
But first up was recognition of three Cherokee Seniors who have recently received their Girl Scout Gold award. Deputy Mayor Deb Hackman spoke regarding the award, which is similar to the Eagle Scout Award in the Boy Scouts, though it doesn’t get near the same recognition. Each girl had to create a project that was selfless and sustainable and required at least 80 hours of service. The girls created business plans prior to beginning their projects. While I would normally try to give a brief summary of each project, I received such a nicely detailed description of their projects, I wanted to produce them in their entirety. (And a thank you to Nikki Wenzel and JoAnne Harmon for their assistance with this information!)
Katie Parker worked with a local nursing home to create an activity that would be used primarily by the residents of the memory care ward. Katie designed then created CAD drawings to plan and build a 6 foot handicap accessible gardening table for the memory care unit her grandmother resided in before she passed. The gardening table was built on-site and Katie designed it to be encased in weather resistant material so that it will never require maintenance, and will last a lifetime, or two. When filled with flowers and herbs, it is enjoyed by all residents of the nursing home and their families as well as the staff.
Julie Toich’s project took her artistic talents and those of the art club at our high school to decoratively paint ceiling tiles for a local in-patient pediatric rehabilitation facility. The 4ft by 2 ft. tiles, all designed by Julie are in a fun, calming ocean and sea creature theme. Installed over a child’s bed, it provides the young patients something beautiful and cheerful to see, rather than a plain grey drop ceiling tile, when they are in bed, which for some is a large portion of their day
Jacqueline Wenzel tackled the issue of podiatric problems that plague the homeless. She teamed up with the Miss America organization to collect shoes during the Miss America Show Us Your Shoes parade in Atlantic City. Jacqueline then worked with The AtlanticCare HealthPlex at their annual Health fair for the homeless. She researched and created education boards to show a variety of foot disorders suffered especially by the homeless. She used those boards to teach foot care and a little first aid. She created ‘blessings bags’ with foot care supplies that she and her team gave to the attendees of the fair along with the shoes she had collected. From the parade and persistent collecting, Jacqueline collected over 800 pair of shoes and 400 pair of new socks for the homeless community in Atlantic City, NJ
Councilman D’Andrea asked about the ceremony where the girls would be recognized, which will take place at the Crowne Plaza. He mentioned that the Evesham Celebration Foundation would sponsor the girls for their ceremony, as they have done in the past for Eagle Scouts.
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| (L to R) Deputy Mayor Deb Hackman, Jacqueline Wenzel, Katie Parker, Julie Toich, Mayor Randy Brown |
Next to be recognized was Bob Hennefer, who was selected as PGA of Philadelphia Professional of the Year. He was joined at the podium by his colleagues and family. Mayor Brown lauded Bob and his staff with helping transform the golf course into a significant profit center for the town. The Town Council presented Mr Hennefer with a proclamation, a paragraph of which was read by Mayor Brown:
Since taking over operations at the township facility Bob and his team have increased Indian Springs rounds of golf, driving range sales, merchandise sales, men memberships, all leading to an overall increase in the past three seasons. Due to the success of the facility, he’s been appointed to oversee the townships new ‘Recreation and Open Space Initiative’. Bob also gives his time as a volunteer to mentor his fellow PGA Professionals. Inspired by his brother Brad, Bob’s dedicated countless hours to working with individuals with Down Syndrome. This includes community walks, golf lessons and competing in the special Olympics alongside his brother Brad. Bob received the Special Olympics highest honor, the Conrad Rehling Award in 2016, and he’s been named the Golf Professional of the Year by the Philadelphia PGA
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| Bob Hennefer, co-workers and family |
The student government representatives were next to be recognized. Each school was called up in turn, each student introducing themselves. Mayor Brown asked each group of students what their ideas have been, their campaign promises and issues they are trying to address. Some examples were Movie Day, Reading Day, fundraising for charity in exchange for being allowed to chew gum, helping the PTA and hurricane victims and fixing up a Gaga Pit at the school. Each child was given a proclamation and posed for pictures with their school representatives and the Town Council.
Two other items to note during the proclamation portion of the night. The Mayor asked the crowd who was rooting for New England in the Super Bowl, and then asked Police Chief Crew to arrest anyone with their hands up. In addition, the Mayor went into the crowd and asked former Eagles defensive tackle Darwin Walker to stand up and ask any of the New England fans if they wanted to change their mind. (Mr. Walker was in attendance because his son was being recognized as one of the Student Council representatives. The Eagle in the photo leading off this post was Darwin Walker, for those didn't recognize him.)
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| Mayor Randy Brown and former Philadelphia Eagle Darwin Walker |
After a brief intermission allowing the students and their parents to leave, a presentation entitled “Impact of PILOTs and Tax Appeals on Township Finances” was given by Township Manager Tom Czerniecki and Town CFO Tom Shanahan.
Mr Czerniecki and Mr Shanahan gave a straightforward, fact-filled professional presentation of some of the issues facing the town. Mr Czerniecki began the presentation noting that their collection rate for 2017 taxes was 99.22%, up from 99.16% in 2016 and 98.79% in 2015. He mentioned that ratables had grown in town by almost 50 million – this number excludes the properties for redevelopment. This growth is from increases in property values from people adding decks or additions on existing houses, new smaller subdivisions and commercial improvement.
Mr Czerniecki then went on to highlight several of the projects that have been completed or are currently under way in town: Olga’s, Main Street Apartments, Jackie’s Crossing, Marlton Gateway Apartments and The View at Evesham. Prior to redevelopment, these properties had a value of $10,633,000 and are expected to have a post-redevelopment value of $35,350,000. This will provide additional property taxes in the amount of $706,659. (Please note that the slide shown had an error. The ‘difference’ for the Old Muni/Gateway complex is incorrect. It should be $6,600,000, which is why my totals differ slightly.). Of that total, $458,252 would go to the two school districts.
Tom Shanahan then gave a presentation regarding tax appeals, which requires a little background information on tax assessment and collection in Evesham (and all of NJ). Based on the value of your property, there are multiple entitles that receive a share of your property taxes: Evesham Township, Burlington County, Evesham Fire Department, Evesham Township School District and the Lenape Regional School District. If your tax bill is $10,000, your money is split up like this:
- $4,062.30 Evesham Twp School District
- $2,384.30 Lenape Reg High School District
- $1,595.55 Evesham Township
- $ 498.30 Evesham Township Fire District
- $1,459.30 Burlington County
One of the difficulties municipalities face is when people appeal their property taxes, and this was especially a problem during the housing market collapse in previous years. At a very high level, here’s how it works. Before the housing collapse, imagine your house was worth $350,000 according to the assessment done by the town. After the market collapsed, your house is now only worth $325,000, but you are still being taxed as if it were worth $350,000. So you appeal your taxes and the township has to defend their valuation of $350,000.
Of the 5 taxing districts, only the Township of Evesham has the right and duty to assess your property and collect your taxes. Because of this, the Township is solely responsible for the defense and fees associated with it. And if the homeowner successfully appeals, the township has to reimburse the entire overpayment in taxes, but the school and fire districts are under no obligation to repay their share back to the town. The County pays the town back their share of the overpayment in the following tax year.
If you successfully appeal your tax bill and lower your assessment to $325,000, it reduces your taxes by about 10%, to $9000,. Here is how your money is split up then:
- $4,062.30 Evesham Twp School District
- $2,384.30 Lenape Reg High School District
- $ 741.48 Evesham Township
- $ 498.30 Evesham Township Fire District
- $1,313.37 Burlington County
The school and fire districts see no change, but the Evesham Township tax revenue has been drastically reduced. (A $350,000 assessment does result in exactly a $10,000 tax bill. I am using round numbers to make the math easier. The percentages above are using the 2016 tax rates shown here).
Over the last 9 years, Mr Shanahan estimates approximately $7 million in tax appeal losses, which resulted in $4.9 million in unreimbursed tax appeal losses for the town, in addition to approximately $300,000 - $400,000 in legal fees and appraisals. He noted that there was currently a backlog of appeals for properties currently valued at $154 million. Because of the tax plan recently passed in Congress limiting the SALT deductions to $10,000 beginning with next year’s tax filing, approximately 2200 homes are affected by the new limit. Because of this, Mr. Shanahan and the tax department are expecting a wave of additional appeals as homeowners try to lower their property taxes.
I would recommend watching the video of this portion of the Town Council meeting. It was highly informative and the Two Toms did a great job making the information easy to understand and highlighting the successes of the 5 year PILOT projects around town.
However, context is important. Councilmen DiEnna and D’Andrea had both asked for presentations regarding these issues because of objections that were being raised online and in Town Council meetings about 20 year PILOT programs and the lack of revenue sharing with other taxing entities. By the comments from the Council and Mayor, it would appear that this presentation was to counter those objections. Mr Czerniecki’s presentation focuses on the successes of the 5 year PILOT agreements, and they have indeed been great successes. But of the objections I’ve heard in Town Council meetings over the past few months and those I have read on line, most of the objections are to the 20 year PILOT projects, where the schools and Fire district will not receive taxes on improvements to those properties (Barclay Chase and Renaissance) for 20 years.
It would appear that the township is taking the stance that another reason for the 20 year PILOTs not sharing revenue with the other taxing entities seems to be that the town loses a lot of money on tax appeals and related expenses. From the Township point of view, if a property was indeed overtaxed, shouldn’t all taxing entities have to repay the overpayment? Since the other taxing districts do not share the burden, the PILOTs make up some of the revenue lost in the tax appeal process. In many cases, the town properly assessed a property, but due to economic conditions outside the control of the town, property values have dropped, and the burden should be shared by all taxing districts.
During the meeting, the Mayor stated (regarding Jackie’s Crossing and Main St Apartments) that “the number of school age children that will come out of all those facilities you will be able to count on two hands”. According to the Sundance Demographic study that the Town Council commissioned, which is pictured below, unless those hands each have 14 fingers on them, it’s going to be hard to count on two hands.
And the number of children expected from Barclay Chase and Renaissance is 190 according to the Sundance Study, the school districts will receive no tax revenue from these projects for 20 years. (It is 129 according to the School Board commissioned Whitehall study.)
Bottom line, it would be beneficial to have Mr Czerniecki (or whoever the next Town Manager is) give a presentation on the economic effects of a 20 year PILOT. And it needs to be remembered it is not town money or school district money – it is all taxpayer money. It’s just a question of whether it is being shared in the most efficient and effective manner.
There were a couple of quick votes at the end of the meeting. George Tenza was reappointed to the MUA by a vote of 3-0-2 (with DiEnna and Mayor Brown abstaining). Byron Druss was voted as first alternate to the MUA by a vote of 4-0-1 (with DiEnna abstaining).