POST OFFICE OPPONENTS VILLAGE KEEPERS RIP DEVELOPERS TAX AVOIDANCE

Village Keepers Inc., the organization that has opposed the proposed Maplewood Village post office redevelopment plan and filed suit against it, has responded to our story today about how the developer of the project is using it to avoid capital gains taxes on another Maplewood land deal.

See our original story HERE, in which Mayor Vic Deluca defends the Township Committee's decision to allow developer Joe Forgione to transfer his tax abatement in the project to another entity, a move that also allows him to avoid capital gains taxes on another local land sale.

See the Village Keeper's response below:

From Dirk Olin, President of the Village Keepers:

Mayor DeLuca's response completely — and perhaps conveniently — misses the point. Here's what's at issue: What did the Township Committee know about Joe Forgione's plan to avoid taxes on the PSE&G sale, and when did it know it?

Forgione sold PE&G to Avalon Bay sometime in 2014. According to my understanding of the applicable Federal law, in order to take advantage of a section 1013 tax free exchange, Forgione had to reveal, within 45 days of the sale, that he would reinvest the sale proceeds in the purchase of the Post Office building. The PILOT was agreed to on April 24, 2015.  

So did Forgione disclose to the Township Committee that he was angling for this enormous Federal tax break before April 24?  If so, then why did the Township Committee grant him an additional tax break in the form of a PILOT?  If not, then the Township Committee was bamboozled and should not reward Forgione for his failure to disclose in April.

Forgione and his mega-millionaire partner, Steve Kalafer, do not need a PILOT from Maplewood in addition to a huge Federal tax break.  Maplewood is now required — because of the irresponsible contract that the TC signed — to sell the Post Office to essentially whomever Forgione now directs. But there is no need to provide a new PILOT for Kalafer.  Yet that is what the Township Committee is planning to do on November 17.  

The TC should reconsider.  It should not waste the money of Maplewood taxpayers.  It is already selling the Post Office for peanuts.  It should not compound that mistake.