The following story appeared in the Atlantic City Press:
Atlantic County Mayors Association plans to contest settlement with Trump
(Published: Sunday, February 24, 2008)
Back off, Donald Trump. The governing bodies of the almost two dozen municipalities in Atlantic County are one step closer to banding together and mounting a legal challenge to the recent $34 million tax appeal settlement between Atlantic City and Trump Entertainment Resorts Inc.
Mayors from a majority of the towns came away from the Friday night meeting of the Atlantic County Mayors Association with an agreement to act as a body and advocate a joint effort in trying to lessen or even nullify the settlement.
"There was a unified voice among the towns to challenge this and move forward," said Buena Vista Township Mayor Chuck Chiarello, the association's president.
Atlantic County owes more than $5 million of the $34 million settlement approved by the Atlantic City Council in November. The county had tried to start its own appeal, but in December Tax Court Judge Joseph Small ruled that the county is a "pass-through" entity, not a taxing entity, and therefore isn't able to intervene.
Each municipality in the county owes a proportional amount of the settlement, ranging from Egg Harbor Township's share of $466,672 to Corbin City's share of $5,490.
"It may be a small amount per taxpayer," said Chiarello, "but it's an amount we should not bear. If we don't nip this early on, (there could be) subsequent settlements with another casino or another large property. This could happen repeatedly, time and time again."
Chiarello cautioned that the Mayors Association in itself could not launch a challenge - "(We) probably also don't have legal standing as an entity," he said - and that it was the responsibility of each mayor to go back and make the case to the town councils.
"Several other times we've made an effort to get all towns on board to support a situation like this," he said. "But it's not easy getting all the towns to agree. (As to) the money needed to support a legal defense, it's unknown what it will cost to fight this battle."
As is usually the case in such legal matters, one town might take the lead in filing a lawsuit while other towns sign on to it.
"We're working on a plan to ration out the cost in proportion to the size of the community," Chiarello said.
One avenue of appeal, he added, could be the disparity between some original estimates of the size of the settlement - one city-hired consultant originally described $1.65 million as the city's "best case scenario" and $25.82 million as the "worst case scenario" - and the final $34 million number approved by the City Council.
"There's a great distance between those numbers," Chiarello said. "This would bring about a proper examination of it. ... There's a lot of different angles to this."
But another solution recently proposed by Somers Point Councilman Bobby Donovan - dipping into the county's $10 million surplus to offset each town's share - seems to be dead in the water, as far as the Mayors Association is concerned.
"That issue did not become a topic," Chiarello said. "It did not seem to be a practical way to resolve the issue."
Somers Point City Council approved a resolution calling on County Executive Dennis Levinson and the county Freeholders to look into the issue, a copy of which was sent out to every municipality in the county.
Levinson had already gone on record in opposition, while, before Friday's meeting, Galloway Township Mayor Tom Bassford described his reservations about the idea.
"Maybe we could use some of (the surplus)," Bassford said, "but half sounds like a lot. It's never prudent to use half a surplus in one shot. ... The county does a good job with its budget, and (dipping into it) would unfortunately just affect us later down the line. I don't approve of other towns saying what we should do, so I don't want to tell the county what they should do."
*Figure denotes Atlantic City's contribution towards the county's share of the tax settlement
Source: Atlantic County Executive's Office
If you recall, Mayor DiDonato decided on his own to withdraw Hammonton from this organization. The impact of the settlement to Hammonton taxpayers is about 1.55 cents on our tax rate. And as the story states, if this one is successful, more cases like this could be brought. We should be working together in a joint effort with the other municipalities to protect our taxpayers. We need to rejoin the Atlantic County Mayors Association and work together with all of the municiplaities of Atlantic County.
