{"id":26373,"date":"2025-11-03T02:17:21","date_gmt":"2025-11-03T02:17:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/26373\/"},"modified":"2025-11-03T02:17:21","modified_gmt":"2025-11-03T02:17:21","slug":"op-ed-solomon-is-the-only-candidate-for-jersey-city-mayor-who-will-check-developers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/26373\/","title":{"rendered":"Op-Ed: Solomon is the only candidate for Jersey City mayor who will check developers"},"content":{"rendered":"

In an editorial, Knitty Gritty JC member Arlene Stein explains why she believes Jersey City Ward E Councilman James Solomon has the best approach for development if elected mayor.
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Jersey City has been on a building tear. Cranes dot Journal Square and Paulus Hook, and our skyline keeps getting taller.<\/p>\n

But there\u2019s an uncomfortable truth beneath the shine: we\u2019ve financed much of this boom with tax abatements and long-term \u201cPayments in Lieu of Taxes\u201d (PILOTs) that pad developer profits while shortchanging public schools and shifting the burden to everyone else.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why I\u2019m supporting Councilman James Solomon for mayor. He\u2019s the only leading candidate who has consistently opposed bad abatements and is promising a top-to-bottom audit of every developer tax break on the books.<\/p>\n

Consider last week\u2019s vote for a 30-year PILOT in Paulus Hook. It\u2019s the same abatement story we\u2019ve always had in Jersey City: long horizon for our taxpayers, limited fiscal upside for schools, and the age-old story of private gain now, public costs later.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s why this matters. Under New Jersey\u2019s PILOT structure, 95% of the payment goes to the city and 5% to the county. Zero goes to the public schools.<\/p>\n

With a conventional property-tax bill, schools receive a substantial share. With a PILOT, they don\u2019t. For a school district already asked to do more with less, that\u2019s not development policy; it\u2019s a shell game.<\/p>\n

Who makes up the difference? Homeowners and small landlords without abatements\u2014people who\u2019ve watched bills spike while new luxury towers get decades of discounts.<\/p>\n

I know this firsthand. My property taxes, for a modest house in the Heights, have more than doubled during the past several years.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, large projects negotiated generous breaks for barely anything in return. That\u2019s not smart growth; it\u2019s upside-down budgeting.<\/p>\n

Supporters of blanket abatements argue that \u201cthe project wouldn\u2019t happen otherwise.\u201d Sometimes, in weaker markets or on contaminated sites, that\u2019s true.<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s supposed to be the exception, not the rule. New Jersey\u2019s own transit-oriented development guidance says PILOTs are meant for projects in designated zones, with a clear showing that the deal is necessary.<\/p>\n

In the hottest corners of Jersey City, the idea that 30-year subsidies are the only way to build strains credulity.<\/p>\n

James Solomon is offering a different path. First, as mayor he\u2019s vowed to audit every developer tax break, past and present, and publish the results.<\/p>\n

Sunlight is the precondition for reform; residents deserve to see which projects paid what, and whether promises on affordability and community benefits were delivered.<\/p>\n

Second, Solomon would stop handing out long-term abatements as a default and tie any incentive to clear, measurable public benefits\u2014deeply affordable homes, not token set-asides; enforceable labor standards; real neighborhood amenities.<\/p>\n

If an abatement doesn\u2019t pass a rigorous cost-benefit test for schools and taxpayers, it shouldn\u2019t pass at City Hall. (And yes, that means clawbacks when developers miss their marks.)<\/p>\n

Third, he\u2019s right to center school funding in the conversation. Every time the Council swaps a full tax bill for a PILOT, JCPS loses revenue it would otherwise receive.<\/p>\n

We can\u2019t keep telling families we value education while structuring deals that route school dollars away from classrooms. If we need incentives in specific places, build in a dedicated school share of any service charge\u2014full stop.<\/p>\n

Some will reply that the Paulus Hook deal included \u201caffordable\u201d units, union labor, or new walkways\u2014as if any benefit automatically justifies a 30-year discount. But terms matter.<\/p>\n

The public should see the math: how many affordable homes, at what income levels, for how long, and what\u2019s the net present value to the city and the schools compared to a conventional tax bill?<\/p>\n

Without those answers, \u201caffordable\u201d becomes a press-release adjective, not a policy.<\/p>\n

This election is about whether Jersey City continues governing by developer exception\u2014or resets to fairness and transparency.<\/p>\n

Voters should use that opportunity to demand a course correction: end automatic abatements, publish the books, and put schools and homeowners first.<\/p>\n

For years, too many leaders sold us a false choice: accept endless abatements or accept no growth. James Solomon rejects that binary.<\/p>\n

Build, yes\u2014but build on terms that make sense for the people who already live here and pay the bills. If you\u2019re tired of \u201cgold-plated\u201d deals and rising tax notices, it\u2019s time to back the candidate who\u2019s been \u201cnot for sale\u201d from the start.<\/p>\n

Vote James Solomon for mayor on November 4. Let\u2019s grow Jersey City without giving away the store.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Arlene Stein is an educator and a resident of Jersey City Heights. She is also on the organizing committee of Knitty Gritty JC, a local pro-democracy group.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In an editorial, Knitty Gritty JC member Arlene Stein explains why she believes Jersey City Ward E Councilman…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26374,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[13336,304,13338,16119,16735,9,11,10],"class_list":{"0":"post-26373","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-2025-jersey-city-mayoral-race","9":"tag-editorial","10":"tag-james-solomon","11":"tag-jersey-city-development","12":"tag-knitty-gritty-jc","13":"tag-new-york","14":"tag-new-york-headlines","15":"tag-new-york-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26373","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26373"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26373\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}