It was announced last week the Port Authority and Newark had reached an agreement to extend the lease the Port Authority has at the airport in return for $265 million being paid to the city. Of that money, $100 million would be funneled into the city s coffers to fill a budget deficit while the other $165 million would replace state funding for the downtown arena project. The entire project is expected to cost about $355 million. Other funding sources are from the team owners and a reported $15 million from Essex County.
Straight has led a campaign during recent weeks to have a referendum question placed on the November ballot which would ask voters if they wanted tax money to be used to fund the arena project. On Friday she issued a statement that called for the money from the Port Authority to be used to improve the educational system and offset property taxes even more in Newark.
Friday also marked the last day to file petitions with municipal clerks to have a referendum placed on the general election ballot. As of Friday, Straights team submitted petitions in seven of the county s 22 municipalities, collecting more than 12,000 signatures total from those towns. Those were Caldwell, West Caldwell, North Caldwell, Belleville, Nutley, Livingston and Glen Ridge.
According to election guidelines, a non-binding referendum can be placed on the ballot if signatures of 10 percent of the registered voters in the municipality are submitted on petitions.
Another way to have the referendum question placed on the ballot was to have the local governing bodies vote. Elected officials in Millburn, Fairfield, Verona, Cedar Grove and Roseland passed legislation to have the question placed on the ballot.
Freeholder James Paganelli of Verona had lobbied the county freeholder board to have a similar question placed countywide on the ballot, but the Democratic-controlled board did not entertain the Republicans suggestion at its Aug. 15 meeting, the last time it met before the Friday deadline. Paganelli said it would have made sense to have the question placed on the ballot throughout the county since all municipalities will be affected.
Straight admitted she focused her efforts to collect signatures in municipalities where she believed she could be successful. During a recent press conference, she said workers were not sent into Newark, for example, because thousands of signatures would be needed and it would not have been feasible to collect that many in such a short period of time.
The municipalities where she collected signatures required small amounts, just 32 in Glen Ridge and 82 in Livingston, for example. However, the campaign collected significantly more signatures than were needed, signing 664 in Glen Ridge and 2,857 in Livingston. The Straight Team for Lower Property Taxes paid campaign workers $75 per day to collect signatures as well as utilizing volunteers.
The Straight team also was undaunted when elected officials in Belleville, Nutley and Glen Ridge did not pass legislation for the referendum. Helping her to collect signatures were Belleville Councilman Nick Auriemma, Nutley Commissioner Mauro Tucci and Al DeMeo, a member of the Belleville Board of Educaton who is running with Straight as a freeholder candidate.
I am upset the council failed to take action on an issue of great importance to the voters of Belleville, Auriemma said. Without her hard work, this would not have become a reality, he added about Straight.
Rather than be subjected to the political wheeling and dealing of a few politicians, voters will have the opportunity to voice their opinion at the polls on Election Day, she said about the towns where the referendum will appear. Property taxes in Essex County are at an all-time high and getting worse. The time is long overdue for taxpayers to have a say in how their money is spent. The decision to build a new arena in Newark shouldnt be based on what wealthy team owners and politicians want. It should be based on what the taxpayers can afford.
Freeholder President Joseph DiVincenzo, who is the Democratic candidate for county executive, has said he is supportive of the arena project and expressed hope it would become a reality based on money Newark will receive from the Port Authority. He said the city and county will benefit greatly from the jobs created by the arena and the increased number of people expected to visit the downtown area because of it.
He said it was premature to place a referendum question on the ballot because a definite plan still has not been created. Until that is done, a fair question cannot be created.
He added the county has not been involved in any discussions about the arena and it has not voted on any legislation to dedicate money to the project.