Major Segment Of $30 Million Annual Overdevelopment Tax Increase May Be Averted If Open Space Acquisition Program Goes Forward

Superintendent Mike Ritacco Says He’ll Push For School Board Contribution ($700,000 Annually) To Open Space Plan That Offers Significant Future Tax Relief If Property Can Be Acquired Quickly At Current Prices

Same Plan Was Accepted, Then Rejected By GOP Leaders And School Board Member And Developers Engineer Frank Sadeghi Who Reported Falsely Two Years Ago After Pressure From Developers That Board Members Were Opposed To Helping With Open Space Acquisition

Dover Township: School Superintendent Michael Ritacco has held out new hope to taxpayers who want the school establishment to help in fighting excessive development and Mt. Laurel mandates that threaten to overwhelm the school system.

Ritacco has responded favorably to a proposal to combine funds from the township, the municipal utilities authority and the school system to purchase enough open space as quickly as possible “to stop excessive development by taking some of the developers’ raw materials off the table.”

Open Space Plan Could Offset Big Overdevelpment Tax Increase

The proposal, which could prevent part of a big tax increase that is sure to come if overdevelopment continues, has been pushed for the last two years by DMUA Commissioner and former Assemblyman Robert K. Haelig Jr.

Haelig’s plan was approved two years ago by every Republican leader in Dover Township including Boss R. C. Clement and Assemblyman James Holzapfel, but their support was withdrawn after pressure from developers who noted the proposal could cut into their profits.

Sadeghi’s Duplicity Set Expensive Acquisition Delays, Tax Increases In Motion

Complicating the process was some elementary duplicity from School Board member and GOP Posse leader Frank Sadeghi, who said he approved the plan and would take it before other school board members. Sadeghi then reported back that the “other school board members” were opposed to the proposal.

But it now appears that Sadeghi, whose firm does engineering work for developers, simply lied about the rejection of the Haelig plan, and set the community’s progress on these issues back by the amount of time it has taken the school administration to fully understand the consequences of Sadeghi’s duplicity.

The result, of course, is higher school taxes, higher municipal government costs and higher real estate prices the community pays to acquire needed real estate two years after the fact.

Ritacco Apparently Knew Nothing About Sadeghi’s Duplicity

Ritacco apparently knew nothing about Sadeghi’s duplicity, or the damage it caused, because he is not in the loop in the Byzantine labyrinth of local Republican sleaze and greed maneuvers.

But the Superintendint’s decision to push hard for a reasonable open space contribution appears to clear the way for taxpayers concerned about the school system dragging its feet on overdevelopment issues to approve the proposed new middle school and other improvements on the ballot in Tuesday’s $40 million school facilities referendum.

Decision Puts The Onus On The Township Committee

Ritacco’s decision also puts the onus squarely on the township committee to stop posturing and maneuvering on a viable open space plan, and come up with a way to get very serious very quickly about open space acquisition before the whole question becomes academic because the property has all been developed by Sadeghi’s clients.

Combining funds for principal and interest payments on a bond issue to pay acquisition costs would require about $700,000 a year from the school system to add to a similar annual contribution from the DMUA and a $900,000 appropriation from the township approved as a result of the open space referendum question adopted in November 2000.

The program, if the township committee ever decides to implement it, could generate enough leverage to prevent a large part of a $30 million overdevelopment tax increase which is sure to happen if action is not taken very soon.    (for 12-07-02)

Click Here For Previous OceanCountyPolitics•Com WebSite Article: “Two Toms River School Board Members Hid Their Complicity In Massive Overdevelopment And Gridlocked Traffic; And Now Sadeghi And Vasil Won’t Help Taxpayers Offset The Huge Overdevelopment Tax Increase They Helped Cause”

VIDEOS

SPECIAL

Click Here for
 Mayor Russo's
Advisory Committee on 
Behalf of the Developmentally
Handicapped
Lecture Series