To the editor: It’s time to fight for tax relief by rezoning our watershed property. In 1949 the City of Newark paid West Milford $1.8 million dollars in real estate taxes. In 2006 the City of Newark paid West Milford $1.3 million dollars in property taxes. It is time for West Milford to begin to fight for tax relief by rezoning watershed property so it reflects its true economic commercial value. The Newark Watershed is a 35,000-acre natural resource owned by the City of Newark. The watershed is managed by the Newark Watershed Conservation and Development Corporation, (NWCDC). The watershed consists of five reservoirs, of which two, Clinton Reservoir and Echo Lake, are located entirely within West Milford. With an average depth of 42 feet, and an average size of 388 acres, the five reservoirs are surrounded by a natural buffer of over 30,000 acres. Newark can yield 49 to 57 million gallons of water per day off the watershed, depending on drought conditions. Of the 35,000 acres owned by Newark, 16,481.98 acres are located within the Township of West Milford. Over 700 acres are exempt from property taxes, as a result of Newark’s sale of the land to the State’s Green Acres Trust. Newark does pay property tax on its remaining land. Newark’s tax payment to West Milford for 2007 will be $1,376,162.24, on a total assessed value of $25,297,100. Newark is paying property tax of approximately $83.50 per acre. Is there any other taxpayer in West Milford that pays property tax of only $83.50 per acre? Newark’s assessed value is equal to an average of $1,534.93 per acre. A three-year study of the “natural capital” value of environmentally sensitive land in New Jersey, such as the Newark Watershed, concluded that fresh water wetlands may be valued at as much as $12,000 per acre. (The Record, A-8, May 22, 2007). At $12,000 per acre, the assessed value of Newark’s land would increase to $197,783,760. On an assessed value of $197,783,760, Newark should be paying property taxes to the Township of West Milford in the amount of $10,759,436.54, or $652.80 per acre. Think $10,759,436.54 is too substantial a tax on 16,481.98 acres for Newark to absorb? Then consider that Newark is scheduled to receive $113,766,374 in state aid this fiscal year compared to West Milford’s $4,030,741. Newark receives this state aid in addition to its receipts from the sale of water pumped off the watershed and sold to other communities and businesses. Based on the 2000 census, Newark’s $113,766,374 in state aid amounts to $416 per resident, whereas West Milford’s $4,030,741 in State aid amounts to only $153 per resident. As a candidate for West Milford Town Council I am dismayed by the inequities these figures represent. This is not an issue of water surcharges, or other forms of watershed aid, rather the issue is that the township’s largest land owner may only be assessed at 12 percent of the lands true “natural capital value,” thereby depriving West Milford of over 9 million dollars in annual property tax revenue, or 30 percent of the township’s entire 2007 budget. Newark recently sold its development rights on certain watershed lands to the state for $10,000,000. What about the development rights of other West Milford land owners who have been adversely affected by the Highland’s Act? Requiring West Milford land owners to involuntarily surrender their development rights in the name of the” public good” of Newark’s water supply, while compensating Newark for surrendering its own development rights on the same land is wrong and should not be permitted in a representative society. Bill Gervens, Marilyn Lichtenberg and I vow, if elected, to advocate for conservation, with equitable compensation for West Milford, its taxpayers and landowners. We are proposing that the West Milford Planning Board begin to look into creating a new zoning classification for lands, facilities and reservoirs that protect our state’s water supply. We are suggesting the zone be called the Commercial Water Conservation Zone and that the properties in that zone be accessed for tax purposes at their highest utility and true value. It is time to fight for Conservation with Compensation, and rezoning our watershed property should be our first step. As elected officials we will take that first step. Daniel Jurkovic West Milford Republican Candidate for Council