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The Herald and The 1-anterr

Wednesday', 1 february 4, 1981

Getting to the Point

■ Hearings wort* scheduled to begin earlier this week on ' ihc longstanding controversy surrounding Stone Harbor Point Mam litigants are the state Division of Coastal Resources within the Dept of Environmental Protection, and the Borough of Stone Harbor Joining as interveners arc the county-based Citizens Assn for protection of the Environment and. with a larger more national membership. the American Littoral Society One can imagine the complexity of the hearings, scheduled to conclude today before an Administrative I^w judge • Basically, hftwever. the heart of the issue is rather sim- , pH- and rnaV tie slated in terms of three basic question^ •Should the borough continue filling in the low-lying peninsula Iwqndfd by the Atlantic (Kean. Hereford In let and Croat Channel to create building lots for housing construction Which will provide tax revenue'’ •Should the state, and a handful of concerned onvifonmontAds. lie permitted to block this man made progress: for the benefit now of the birds and other lower creatures and. in the longrun. for all humans who benefit from nature" ' * , . . „ . •Should man of whatever persuasion keep hands off anq, let nature take its course" 'There is of course, another question 1 implicit whenev er an outside agency seeks lo have a say.in what is |K-recived bv manias only a local issuv flome Rule Should the state »or C A.P E for the Amc’Wcan Littoral SjH iei v -1«’ able to tell borough government what to do of* hnvt l»esi lo go about doing it? Sincqitpe Home Rule iisue is ;• given m all such controversies, it will not lx* considered here other than to say that it wnKd seem that Home Rule is only viable in such arguments when dealing with a dosed svstem I AKIM* THE FIRST THREE questions, in order, we offer these responses . •Why do municipal officials regal'd all land as ratables.

THIS IS the area of The Point the borough wants to fill In for homesltes. The ocean has already cut in behind the groin for a distance of a block or more. The view is north from 127th St. to 122nd.

potential sources of |ax revenue — especially in the case of the Borough of Avalon, which has one of the lowest tax rates in the county? The incessant desire for increased ratables seems a bit Old-fashioned in-light of more recent perspectives by many in government who view the total picture and have come to the conclusion that what provides a source of taxes also requires a need for municipal expenditures. We often times wonder if elected officials don't get caught up in a fraternal mania to keep tax rates down as if it's a merit badge df performance •Keeping an area in its natural state takes tax dollars in the longrun. because the creature known as homo sapiens ■ r

BEYOND THIS end portion of the damaged groin lies the part of The Point the borough doesn’t 'V»D I to develop, at least fM a few decades. Part of theyght is Aver what consititiMfe The Point.

Zeroing in on the ‘Cap’ Law

bv N I T.A TRENTON The New ’ Jersey municipal and court ' ty expenditure limitation "cap ’ law. now in its fifth year of impact on local* budgets, is ‘the foetal of

numerous legislative pro posals to ease its restric tiveness. as .well as to counteract a recent inter pretation df the law by the state's attorney' general, reports the. New. Jersey

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Herali*

John II. Andrus II William J. Adams

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Taxpayers Association. Under the local cap law. municipalities are permit ted to increase appropriations by 5 per cent over the previous year subject to various exceptions. Among these exceptions are expenditure of amounts derived from the sale of municipal assets ahd programs funded from federal or slate aid TWO RECENT opinions by the attorney general arc that revenues from the sale of assets and state “Urban Aid'' shouldn't be included in the base on w-hich the 5 per cent increase is calculated Application of these rulings would reduce the base and consequently the allowable annual increase. Moreover. sinc£ many municipalities have included these revenues in their budget bases since 1977. the a’torney general’s opinions implied that retroactive adjustments should be made Two municipalities challenged the legality of the rulings but a state appeals court postponed action to allow the legislature to come up with a solution. A NUMBER OF bills have been reported from

committee and arc progressing through the legislature These would authorize municipalities to ■ continue including funds from sale df municipal assets and urban aid in the cap base and validate the practice in-previous years In addition. Senate Bill 734. as amended would % ease the impact of in- ‘ creases in what many local officials consider a “Mandated cost" by exempting from the cap increases in public utility, fuel oil. gasoline or heating oil charges which exceed the pi evious year expenditures by more than 10 pei’ cent. CONTINUING double digit inflation, possible cutbacks in state and federal aid. and the latest attorney general interpretation have caused increased pressure from local officials for revision of the cap law And release of a report and recommendations of a special committee selected by the commissioner of the Department of Community Affairs to study the cap law in i960 is expected soon, dotes NJTA.

has a way of proving its presence thru litteKand destruction. The other side of the coin is thal man has*sort of an affirmative action debt to nature — a mandated guardianship imposed because a morafc stewardship seems not to have caught on. •It's a shame man didn't learn his lesson years ago. to keep hands off. Instead, our forefathers set a bad precedent by moving in — getting as close as possible to the most desirable natural locations and then, gradually, ruining them. Today, majestic (to say nothing of protective) sand dunes arc seen as unique on the Jersey Cape. People cokne froifi miles around and are awed by the Avalon and Higbee Beach dune systems It's hard to imagine that the entire ocean and bay coastlines had such dunes a century and a half ago (just as it's difficult to comprehend today why the Wildwoods arq knows as Holly Beach). TALK ABOUT SHORT-SIGHTED. The powers that be in Avalon have .only to look across Hereford Inlet to see what will — undoubtedly happen if and when dwelling units are built further into The Point: It wasn't too many years ago that the Anglesea beachfront was developed. It hasn't been quite that long that the media carried pictures (and stories about the nearby bulkhead being inundated Then the backyards in the development. Then the sea was up to the very foundations, undermining them Further to the south and further bark in time there was SouthiCapc May - on the frontal edge of the Jersey Cape peninsula Up tintilthe late 1940s South Capo May was as much a feommunity — actually an incorporated municipality^— as a geographic location. What happened to South Cap^ May; what will happen to Stone Harbor Point? \ Disappearance thru erosion So. the Ultimate question is: Is it worth the effort, the money to preserve? The same certainly goes for development, ' „ — The HdTald

‘Caps’ Help Gov’t Be More Frugal by Arthur R. Hall Dear Mr Thornton: There was a time When government was growing much faster than the private economy These Caps laws are forcing the government, to pull in their horns along with the rest of the citizens. The Caps.laws bring about a gradual paring of government expenditures in this state. In California, government spending was reduced drastically all at once. In our state, our Caps laws give us more time to work our more orderly reductions in our spending I feel the Caps laws are beneficial for the citizens of the State of New Jersey

Arthur Hall, of Wildwood Crst. wrote this letter to county freeholder Gerald Thornton.

ti.J.T.A. is the N.J. Tax payers Assn.