Ewing Mayor Ball asks Gov.

Christie for tax help

Friday, May 14, 2010

By JOAN GALLER
Staff Writer

Over coffee and muffins yesterday morning at the governor’s mansion, Ewing Mayor Jack Ball seized the
opportunity to ask Gov. Chris Christie for help with Ewing’s tax problems arising from the many state-exempt
properties within its borders.

And he got a promise for “dialogue” on the irksome subject.

It was a coup for Ball, one of about 100 Republican mayors that Christie had invited for a light breakfast at
Drumthwacket in Princeton to thank them for their support of his recent unpopular budget decisions.

Ball, who said he was among the last to arrive around 8 a.m. at the meeting that ended around 9:15, was
enjoying a cup of coffee just as Christie entered the room to deliver his remarks. And Ball found himself
standing close to the portly GOP chief executive.

“Christie basically thanked us for standing behind him and for offering our support to help remedy the
financial problems in New Jersey,” Ball said.

“He was totally sincere and cordialy, and once he finished talking to all of us, he made the rounds and talked
with each mayor present,” Ball said.

“I told him that I have been stating all along ‘behind the big guy’,” Ball recounted. “And I told him, ‘you know,
we do have a problem in Ewing, namely, payments in lieu of taxes for state owned properties. Anyway that
you can help I’d greatly appreciate it.’”

According to Ball, Christie “said he was aware of this problem through my various calls for a meeting with his
staff, and he promised a dialogue in the near future.”

The state occupies at least 20 percent of Ewing’s land through The College of New Jersey, The Katzenbach
School for the Deaf, Department of Transportation, and other state entities, which are exempt from property
taxes but give Ewing “a payment in lieu of taxes” that’s set by the state and cannot be appealed.

Ball and others in the township have been calling for rectification of this tax burden, which falls on the
shoulders of the average property owner.

URL: http://www.trentonian.com/articles/2010/05/14/news/doc4bece09d7f982969675892.prt

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