September 20, 2010

Giants, Jets host city: We'd like our property taxes now

Hey, remember how the town of East Rutherford was threatening to charge the New York Jets and Giants property tax on their new stadium, way back when the building was first approved in 2006? Well, East Rutherford Mayor James Cassella has stopped issuing threats and started issuing invoices:

The New Jersey town of East Rutherford has sent the Giants a $745,000 bill for taxes on a practice complex built on the same site as the stadium. The community plans to levy taxes on the stadium next year if it's successful collecting them on the training facilities, Mayor James Cassella said.

"We believe the new stadium built for the Jets and Giants and the training facility should be taxable," Cassella told the state's Local Finance Board at a meeting in Trenton today. "For some reason, they believe they shouldn't have to pay taxes on a private development."

The teams insist that the state's payments in lieu of property taxes take care of any tax bill that East Rutherford is due; Cassella disagrees, saying the stadium can be taxed like any other privately owned building. Meanwhile, I haven't been immediately able to track down what happened to the clause in the team's originally proposed lease that would have forced the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority to pay any added tax bill for the teams. If it's still in place, that would be bad news for New Jersey taxpayers — especially considering that the Authority is already flat broke. Gee, thanks, new stadium lease!