Lower Needs School Tax Relief; Not Cape May

To The Editor:
For over 30 years, Cape May has forced single families with children and elderly people on fixed incomes out of town in favor of very wealthy people on who live elsewhere. The city chose to do this.
This is despite warnings from its own people, and numbers available to everyone. In an article in the Sept. 12, 2002 issue of a local Cape May newspaper, Barney Dougherty said “It takes young people to make a base of a community. Cape May’s current market does not allow them to do that.” Also the Sept. 18, 2002 issue of The Herald, states Coast Guard Capt. Wisniewski said “1 have 174 units for family housing, the only place Coast Guard men and women live in Cape May. If they don’t fit in the 174 units, they’re going to Lower Township or farther north because they simply can’t afford to live in Cape May.”
During the past 30 years, Cape May has effectively reduced its population by over 25 percent. In fact, the 2010 Census figures show Cape May’s permanent population to be only 3,607. This is the exact number of people they had in 1950.
Census figures show that between 2000 and 2010 Cape May’s permanent population dropped more than 10 percent from 4,034 to 3,607 (- 427), and year round occupancy dropped from 1,821 to only 1,457 (- 364) 20 percent despite the fact housing units grew from 4,064 to 4,155. It is no wonder nearly 70 percent of Cape May’s tax bills are sent outside zip code 08204.
Is it any wonder why Cape May’s registered voters dropped from 2,238 to only 1,810 (- 428) from Sept. 4, 2002 to July 11, 2013?
Cape May probably would not like to discuss its extremely low elementary school taxes, which is a very small fraction of what Lower Township’s Elementary School taxes are, due to Cape May’s receiving massive federal funding (up to near 70 percent) of their elementary school budget.
Based on the “2012 Cape May County Tax Rate Summary” of Aug. 7, 2012, Lower Township residents are paying a whopping 0.372 per $100 while Cape May is paying a small fraction of that at 0.054 per $100 in elementary school taxes. The summary also shows a very sharp disparity between Lower Township and Cape May on total school taxes. In addition to the above, Lower Township is paying 0.273 per $100 in regional school taxes for a total of 0.635 per $100 in total school taxes.
Cape May is paying 02.37 in regional school for a total of only 0.291 per $100, far less than 50 percent of what Lower Township is paying.
Lower Township has suffered greatly as a result of Cape May abandoning affordable housing for working families with children. To accommodate students in our elementary schools, we have had to build an entire school complex (Mitnick) as well as providing major additions to Maude Abrams and Memorial schools. Also, the township had to bear the costs for additional goods and services such as recreation, police protection, etc. to accommodate the new people.
Despite the very low elementary school taxes in Cape May, per articles that appeared in the Herald on Sept.11, 2002 and Sept. 18, 2002, certain people wanted the Coast Guard to run their elementary school.
Cape May could get a good start on resolving their issue simply by constructing the same number of homes (427) for working families with children as they did for wealthy non-residents during the period from 2000 to 2010, and long-range plans to construct affordable housing for working families an ongoing basis.
STEPHEN SHEFTZ
North Cape May