Are Crest Taxes Wasted?

Almost three years ago I wrote a column on all the municipal improvements which have been made in recent years in Wildwood Crest, and how similar investments in other beach communities had served residents exceedingly well. As that topic still draws breath in the Crest, I revisit it here. I pointed to the investment in a large municipal swimming pool; the transformation of five beachfront blocks into public commons areas, including an immensely popular bandstand at one end and a gazebo at the other; a 950-foot pier to the oceanfront; new children’s playgrounds; Sunset Lake beautification and roadway restructuring; a new county library; and an adult exercise park.

Of course, there are two sides to all of the above; it costs a lot of money, and that is why it was a topic during the last election.  But take a look at the town; would anybody want to undo those expenditures? Those outlays have created a very desirable town, which, in turn, is creating increasing interest by people looking to buy shore property.

But if you are a current resident living on a fixed income, you may be asking, “How do I as a taxpayer pay for all of this?” The simple answer is, YOU don’t.  While you are benefiting, the bill for this, in great measure, is being paid by new property owners who are buying into the town at greatly increased prices.

When the Crest Methodist Church was razed last year, the land was divided into 10 building lots. Today, eight of those 10 lots have homes at various stages of completion, with assessments at $1 million each. That will bring into the town’s coffers a lot of additional tax revenue.  As nice as that new revenue is, far more important is what it demonstrates about the interest of buyers in the Crest. Those lots were snapped up virtually as soon as they hit the market, despite the fact that the land alone sold for the amount of money that the typical dwelling and lot sell for.

What this portends is a lot older homes coming down and being replaced by new dwellings, with tax assessments two to three times the existing assessment. Not only does that bring in a lot more tax revenue to pay for all those  improvements, but it does so without concomitant increases in demand  for expensive municipal services: the owners of most  of  these expensive properties are second-home owners, and as such, will not require schools, will  require little policing,  only seasonal sewage treatment and trash collection.

So, if you are a property owner on a fixed income, what type of community would you rather live in? A community where properties are aging, where improvements aren’t being made, and where prospective homebuyers have no interest in your town — or in one like the Crest, or other of Cape May County’s desirable communities, where there is a ready market,  with increasing property values?

As an aside, I talked about manmade  improvement, there is another improvement which costs nothing, but is of immense value – the Crest beaches, unlike many other towns which have to spend a great deal to restore their strands, the Crest’s are very spacious, and are growing,  not shrinking. All of this points to an ever-more desirable, and affordable, community.  And should a property owner ever decide to sell, all those improvements, manmade and natural, will enable him or her to do so with a smile on his face. If the fixed-income owner is still skeptical, he could apply for the New Jersey Senior Freeze (Property Tax Reimbursement) program (http://www.state.nj.us/treasury/taxation/ptr/).

Are Crest taxes spent on improvements a waste? I argue they are not.