MT. OLIVE (12/21/05) – A glimmer of hope concerning the township’s tax woes became visible this week with the creation of a new tax stabilization board that is charged with evaluating the tax impact of the Highlands Water Protection and Planning Act on local municipalities.

Since its passage last year local officials in seven northwestern New Jersey counties have viewed the Highlands Act with skepticism, particularly because of its negative impact on residential and commercial development, the life’s blood of stabilized taxes.

It has been alleged by most of the county and local officials that the land use restrictions in the Act have caused a significant decrease in even the available property values and tax income. Development essentially has been halted in many areas.

Among the main concerns the new stabilization board will address are those of the Warren and Hunterdon County Freeholder Boards that have maintained the property tax revenues have declined significantly and the plights of large underdeveloped or vacant land owners, most of whom have filed and will continue to file tax appeals.

The Highlands Act divided the region in the seven counties into two zones, one planning and the other preservation. There are 400,000 acres in the preservation zone which pretty much stops all development. The planning zone allows development, but it is very restricted and, according to officials, not really desirable to developers.

The Highlands Act was created by the State Legislature last year and what is being called the New Jersey Highlands Municipal Property Tax Stabilization Board which was built into the original legislation.

The chairman of the three member board is Sussex Administrator John Eskilson and Mary Lyons and Carl Richko.

This board will be administering a dedicated property tax fund financed with $10 million from the state’s realty transfer fees for 10 years and $5 million thereafter.

The Highlands Council Chairman, John Weingart, said the role of the board will be to protect municipalities within the preservation area from negative fiscal impacts that have been associated with the Act.

The board’s decisions will be important in helping to further implement the Highlands Act fairly, said Weingart.

Mount Olive is one of the municipalities most severely affected by the Highlands Act, 85 per cent of the land in the township is located within the highly restricted preservation zone where major development is prohibited. Mount Olive officials have taken strong issue with many aspects of the law, especially those concerning zoning boundaries .

There are two highly desirable industrial areas in the Foreign Trade Zone off Route 46 that had been occupied by the BASF Corporation. Officials want that designation changed to a planning zone.

They charge that the current boundary delineations endanger an occupant’s plan to expand, renovate or even sell the sites.

Local officials have been assured that the stabilization board will address these concerns.

In another area for tax relief for affected municipalities, the Highlands Council has asked the State Legislature to consider adopting a reasonable Highlands Water User tax that would generate millions of dollars each year to help acquire open space and farm land. This would include buying properties that have decreased in value since the passage of the Act.

One proposal calls for a water tax of .04 cents on each 1,000 gallons of water used by public water customers. Such a tax, if approved would generate about $13 million a year.

The board also will evaluate reports from municipalities within the preservation area to determine if they have experienced a decline in the value of vacant land directly attributable to the Highlands Act.