To the Editor:
Plainsboro’s Plea – County Attention
As you know, our town is located at the border of Middlesex and Mercer counties and herein lays the problem: administratively, it belongs to Middlesex, but physically it is closer to Mercer. As a result, it gets no transportation from either. Anywhere outside Plainsboro, you can see buses bearing the insignia of one or the other: county: transportation of one kind or another, to and from theaters, between various townships — just none to or from Plainsboro.##M:[more]##
In my 19 years of living here, I have made inquiries from time to time, and I promise to continue doing so, as futile as this may seem. The Township says it is up to the County, and the County just claims that the service is “under consideration.” Maybe next century? In search for a possible cause of this neglect, I found one clue: Middlesex government is elected “at large,” so its members have no incentive to cater to the needs of residents of Plainsboro — they are elected anyway. Has anyone any suggestions?
Jasha M. Levi
46 Marion Drive, Plainsboro
Barack’s Benefit
My name is Jack Marley Seda-Schreiber. I am eight years old and recently I played a benefit concert for our next President, Barack Obama (The News, August 15). The article in your paper helped to bring out over 40 people — friends, family, community members and even folks from outside our area! The music we played that day inspired everybody with the hope and change we so need to see in our country as well as in ourselves. To this end, we raised over $675 for the Obama campaign.
I never imagined so many people coming to hear me play or raising so much money for such an important cause. I cannot explain how truly touched my family and I are by this tremendous support. We all can make a difference!
Jack Marley Seda-Schreiber
Jacob Drive, Princeton Junction
All Aboard For Transit Village?
In April of 2004, I urged Council to adopt a resolution to authorize the Planning Board to conduct a study to determine whether the 350-acre area surrounding the Princeton Junction/West Windsor Train Station should be designated an area in need of redevelopment. That step was initiated to manage future development around the second most active train station in the state; to take advantage of the location to attract additional, quality ratables; to encourage private investment to improve both that station and the surrounding area; and to encourage commuters to use mass transit rather than continuing to rely on private automobiles. At the time this step was taken, the average price of regular gasoline was $1.66 a gallon. The redevelopment statute, as opposed to the Municipal Land Use Law, provides much more control over development including phased development or timed growth. It also provides for financial incentives provided by the NJ Economic Development Authority.
Three years ago, with full funding from the state, the Planning Board developed its study as a prelude to the formulation of a Redevelopment Plan. A Redevelopment Plan would qualify the Township for substantial state financial, technical, and administrative assistance and would provide the mechanism for private investment through redevelopment agreements. I had hoped that by this time improvements to the station, including the construction of garages to accommodate West Windsor commuters, and a mixed-use development would be underway. Unfortunately, this has not occurred for a variety of reasons which need not be raised here.
When the Request for Qualifications and Proposals (RFQ/P) for a planning consultant for the redevelopment plan was constructed, it sought proposals that would go far beyond simply developing a roaster plan or land use plan for the redevelopment site. It addressed matters that would normally be contained in a later site plan application from a developer, including design and streetscape issues, together with a quantification of the amount of housing, retail, and commercial development. In compliance with the RFQ/P, RMJM Hillier presented preliminary concepts for public review and comment. Regrettably, these concepts created premature over-reactions to issues such as housing, school children, and traffic.
Although recently the Council and Administration have been working cooperatively, the fact remains that for one entire year from June 4, 2007, no tangible progress occurred in the formulation of a redevelopment plan. However, contracts have now been approved by the Council for RMJM Hillier to complete the redevelopment plan together with John Madden and Gary Davies, our planning and traffic consultants, with a timeline that calls for a completed redevelopment plan by the end of this year. Although this would be 15 months beyond what was originally planned, it is a goal that we must attain if we are to be successful in retaining support from both county and state agencies. Also, the more we delay having a Redevelopment Plan, the more we risk losing quality private developers and their investment capital to other projects in other municipalities.
Knowing the urgency of proceeding with actual development , I met with the Township’s administrative team and developed the following proposed outline on how I recommend we proceed:
1. Over the next four months we should focus completely on the appropriate content of the redevelopment plan. This needs to be a land-use focused master plan and not a vision or site plan and not an actual application plan. The following are the various actions that should take place at the same time as the preparation of the plan.:
a. The Mayor and Council should define the broad goals and desired uses for the redevelopment site in the same way the Planning Board does when it undertakes the preparation of a new master plan or a new comprehensive zoning ordinance. This should include height restrictions or allowances, set backs, densities, and other related limits or restrictions as well as overall permitted and desired uses. It should not try to identify or locate specific projects on the site, nor should it be bogged down with separate financial and environmental studies, which can be undertaken at a later phase.
b. The Township planners should concentrate on these land use principles to set forth and define, within ranges, the uses and restrictions or allowances at the site that meet the Township’s goals and desires. The developers ultimately selected by the Township will be able to prepare very specific project plans visually and financially against what is allowable. This site will clearly attract the interest of quality developers who will be able to provide the creative substance to meet the objectives of the redevelopment area.
c. Administration officials should continue to meet with each of the property owners in the redevelopment area, particularly NJ Transit, InterCap Holdings, and Sarnoff to encourage their active participation in the redevelopment process. Issues such as land swaps, commitment to assisting other property owners, and the location of public amenities are all topics that will be required as specific development plans are submitted.
d. I have now had discussions with the NJ DEP to secure Brownfield remediation financing to conduct a study of all contaminated sites in the redevelopment area. This will help the Township clean up the sites in preparation for future development,
e. Continued discussions should be held with the Township Parking Authority to understand its short-term and long-term parking objectives and desired locations within the redevelopment area.
In my view, no additional consultants are necessary to be hired at this time. The Township has professionals and staff which can effectively assist throughout this phase. These include the Redevelopment Finance Committee, Phoenix Advisors, the Township CFO and Tax Assessor, and others.
2. After the redevelopment plan is adopted the end of this year, the Administration and Council should undertake the following steps:
a. Prepare a Request for Proposals for developers for either the entire redevelopment site or portions thereof. Information meetings should be held to explain the Township’s plan and answer questions, The proposals ultimately submitted by developers will likely be comprehensive and will establish varying and different visions for the site. These will enable the Township to examine different configurations and uses, all at the cost of the developers rather than the Township. These proposals will reflect not only a design, but also real economic and financial considerations associated with the design.
A master developer may provide the best result but the Township should ensure the master developer include other developers whether existing property owners or not. The Township can also choose to develop the site in stages with different developers. The redevelopment agreement(s) will require specific timetables to be met or the agreement(s) will terminate.
b. The Township’s financial advisor, Phoenix, should prepare a an RFP for investment banking firms or other financial professionals. This would be to assist the Township in evaluating the developers’ proposals and consider the various tax and revenue models and financing options available to the Township in connection with specific development proposals.
c. The Township might select professional consultant(s) to provide financial impact and appraisal services and advice to help evaluate individual developer proposals in connection with projected Township tax and other revenue from this proposed development.
d. It is at this time that the Township should select a redevelopment attorney to assist in negotiating and identifying the terms of any redevelopment agreements or financial or tax or special assessment agreements that would be specific to one or more redevelopment developers.
I hope Council will agree with this blueprint. While we may have different views of what the redevelopment area should include, we must move this project forward together.
Mayor Shing-Fu Hsueh
West Windsor Township
West Windsor:
Focus on Residents, Not Politics
For nearly one year, InterCap Holdings has worked diligently to learn what the majority of West Windsor residents desire to see developed in the area surrounding the Princeton Junction Train Station.
Our team has conducted meetings, focus groups, and outreach to more than 1,”500 residents. We surveyed repeatedly and developed a plan after three well-publicized and well-attended community meetings. All of our technical studies have been provided to the Township, its consultants, the media, and the public via our website, www.intercapholdings.com. In short, InterCap has pursued every possible avenue to conduct an open and public process for residents to shape the redevelopment plan. Our refined plan specifically reflects the needs and desires of a large majority of West Windsor residents.
On Monday, September 8, following the presentation and analysis of our plan by the Township’s planning and traffic consultants, the Township Council is presumably prepared to provide RMJM/Hillier with direction to prepare the redevelopment plan. One of the options Council may consider will be to reduce the number of residential units on the InterCap site, shifting them to the adjacent NJ Transit site.
This option does not make sense from a sound planning, financial, or public process point of view. If Council were to approve this option, it would not make economic sense for InterCap to redevelop its property.
In that event, the Township would lose $38 million of the $74 million of bonding capacity for the entire redevelopment project. The $36 million remaining would not be enough to fund the $30 million parking deck for residents, the $19 million for West Windsor’s share of Vaughn Drive, or the $25 million in additional traffic improvements that we had planned.
It would seem that such an effort to split the residential component would be nothing more than another effort to delay or outright kill redevelopment while trying to appear in favor of it. It is exactly this type of gamesmanship that the public has grown frustrated with and that we have all tried to avoid over the past few months.
As has been reported at the Interagency Task Force Meetings, no less than three different national planning firms, under contract to three different clients (Cooper Eckstut/NJ Transit; Hillier/West Windsor Township; LRK/InterCap), have each independently concluded that the correct distribution of residential, office and retail uses appears under the InterCap plan. In addition, the Township’s own traffic engineer has stated at meetings of the Interagency Task Force that our plan minimizes the traffic impact on the adjacent Penns Neck neighborhood. It is unclear why Council would contradict the near unanimous recommendations of the three national planning firms.
The reasons these professionals have independently reached the same planning conclusions are as follows:
People do not want to live immediately adjacent to parking decks housing 6,”000 vehicles. Because NJ Transit will not sell its land, but only enter into a ground lease, the units on its property can only be built as rentals. West Windsor residents have stated they want owner-occupied housing.
The displacement of parking decks from the NJ Transit property forces the decks to the InterCap site, creating significant traffic problems for the Penns Neck neighborhood along Washington Road. The plan also results in an unrealistic walk to the station for commuters using these decks.
West Windsor’s professionals will agree it is essential to have a critical mass of residential development in a concentrated location to animate the space in the evenings and on weekends, thereby supporting the retail component. Because the total amount of residential units is limited, dispersing them undermines this goal and threatens the viability of the retail.
There seems to be a misunderstanding as to what constitutes a mixed-use development. Mixed use does not mean that each parcel itself has to contain office, retail, and residential. Rather, the redevelopment area, which usually and in this case does include parcels immediately adjacent to one another, should create a mixed use environment in a compact assemblage. This is exactly what has been achieved with the plan we have all been working on together.
For all of these reasons, we can fathom no sound, rational, policy-based reason as to why the Council would consider taking this action..
Steven E. Goldin
CEO, InterCap Holdings
Editor’s note: Goldin submitted this letter prior to Council’s meeting on September 8, in which township professionals reviewed InterCap’s proposals. However, council postponed discussion of the housing element — or any land use decisions — and instead focused on traffic circulation.
Who’s the Mayor?
While we were on vacation, West Windsor has been moving fast forward with the planning of the Transit Village at the Princeton Junction Train Station. I was very glad to hear that finally, everybody was talking to everybody. WW Council held a special agenda session to review Intercap Holding’s redevelopment plan and to listen to a joint report by John Madden, the township’s planning consultant and Gary Davies, its traffic consultant, regarding traffic issues, on September 8.
A meeting of the interagency task force (WW Township, Council and Parking Authority, NJ DOT, NJ Transit and Mr. Goldin) is scheduled for Thursday, September 25, at 1:30 pm, to review the first concept plan for traffic circulation and land uses.
Three years ago, in a letter to local newspapers titled “Smart Planning,” I noted that while everybody was in favor of redevelopment, “there was a great deal of apprehension about what such a complex project means to the residents of West Windsor” and emphasized that “residents were shocked to discover the extent of powers the law authorizes the Township once the redevelopment designation is granted while there are no guarantees that the State has the funds to contribute to this project even if it is approved.” I concluded that “West Windsor has a golden opportunity to do it right and become a beacon to the rest of the country.”
Three years later it is clear that West Windsor missed that golden opportunity. The State is in terrible shape. Its debt has mushroomed to an estimated $38 billion and it has an annual deficit of some $3 billion (only third place after California and New York) — so don’t anticipate any help from the State any time soon. Officials have fleeced the Transportation Trust Fund, so NJ DOT had to renege on its commitment to fully finance Vaughn Drive as spelled out in their final decision of the Penns Neck EIS. Don’t expect any help there either.
NJ Transit is strapped for cash. It had operational expenses of $1,”514 million but only $771 million in revenues in 2007. Yes, the state is subsidizing some 50 percent of your train ticket! Unless they can make a huge profit on their land — forget about any contribution from NJ Transit. And since we are talking about a regional project — where is the contribution of the regional users of the train station?
For three years we had a big charade that ignored the wishes of the residents of WW because the Mayor relentlessly pushed his/Hillier’s plan and it ended up costing us about $1 million (real cost of studies, meetings, consultants, and lawyers’ time). All we saw was arrogance and stupidity. The Mayor continuously told us that we still have a lot of time and we should not worry, after all Hillier should be trusted.
I have detailed several times the mistakes Hillier made and why he should not have been trusted. I asked the Mayor and Council to accept his offer to resign and start the process all over again after the June 4, 2007 meeting. Despite a change in its direction, as the Council decided to take the lead in navigating the project, and a more serious discussion of the real issues, we are still stuck with Hillier. It seems that the Mayor is still pulling the strings behind the scenes and hopes to achieve his vision of a monster city.
WW residents voted (twice) against a massive build out at the train station and a recent referendum that did not happen would have shown (I stopped counting how many time we have said that) that residents want to focus on a downtown area along Route 571 and a parking garage for residents of WW, not on a grandiose regional transit village. The downtown Route 571 portion (Clarksville to Wallace) has been moving slowly but nicely thanks to the Zoning Board insisting on applying the Overlay Ordinance the Council had enacted after long delays and the even slower progress on the implementation of the County Route 571 improvement project that was approved by the council in 2005.
Let’s be realistic. The economy has tanked since we started the process. Bear Stearns was saved by the government. We are in a continuous housing slump and new foreclosures are at 29-year high.
And now I hear that the big automakers are asking for a bail-out. Why is it always the case that those who act responsibly have to save those who act irresponsibly? Who would allow the residents of WW to erase from their books “just” one tiny amount of say, $10 million each? Have you heard about a municipality that reduced taxes recently? I heard about a certain municipality that raised its budget by 20 percent or so and financed it by increasing the municipal tax by 12 percent. Yes — WW. And the excuse Chris Marion, our Business Administrator, gave us: the state did not give us the aid we were counting on…It’s so bad, that after negotiating a reduced price on their house, WW residents find out that their potential buyers run away when they hear about our high taxes.
You heard my “Bait and switch” play in three acts — written, performed and promoted by Steven Goldin.
Recap: Act I — pictures of Downtown Princeton Junction with Lick-it; Act II — Office buildings and parking garages and Act III: all of a sudden his two office towers that were supposed to house a famous financial company turned into listen to this — not 1,”000 units as Hillier suggested — but a much much lower number of 996 units.
I raised many questions that remained unanswered. I have not heard one word on environmental studies, not one word on how to prevent floods in this area (at one point I suggested that Hillier should have considered a Gondola service to ferry people across the tracks on the lake that would form in his “Bowl”) and a lot of talk about our COAH affordable housing obligations while we don’t really know yet what the final regulations are.
Has somebody seriously looked at his numbers? Are we supposed to accept everything he says because he paid for it? Nice guy — I don’t blame him. He is doing what’s best for Mr. Goldin and his financial angels. He makes it look like he is a philanthropist. He “met with all the residents of WW” and “his plan reflects what’s good for the residents of WW.” Let me remind everybody: In his second act he asked the audience to play a little game of “what would you like to see in your beloved Transit Village.” Seventy seven people participated, not all of them are residents of WW — and that’s a true representation of what the residents of WW want?
John Madden was there and participated in the game, as well as the reporters for the local newspapers. Mr. Goldin “educated” us how things should be done (his way) and many residents, unfortunately, fell for it and succumbed to the media blitz, lunch with the CEO, and annoying phone calls. Yeah, right. Let me see: Many residents believe that he was commissioned by the township to do his gig. Who exactly has appointed him as our Acting Mayor of WW (I have to admit — he is a great actor)?
How did it happen that a guy who owns only 7 percent of the properties in the redevelopment area took over the process and is calling the shots and dictates how the plan would look like? Oh, yes, he has already done the same gig in Hamilton, with the help of ex-Mayor Gilmore. Hamilton’s residents threw him and his plans under the train. He tried to do the same in Edison. Again, the residents of Edison threw his plans under the train.
Does anybody know of any development project that Mr. Goldin has completed successfully, as a developer, from A to Z? I have repeatedly asked WW Council and personally talked to the Mayor about the need to issue a formal letter to let the residents of WW and Mr. Goldin know that he is not the only game in town, that he was not appointed by the Mayor to be our Acting Mayor and that he is doing his “studies” at his own risk. Have you seen any formal letter yet?
So now, naturally, you may have already heard this new juicy development: “Goldin Sends Letter to Council Regarding Possible Shifting of Proposed Housing Units.” Apparently, Mr. Goldin is feeling the heat from his angels. They need results, especially as their business is suffering due to the downturn in the economy and the slump in housing. After all, they have invested millions of dollars in Mr. Goldin’s dreams. Mr. Goldin believes that since he poured so much money into the process, he owns it. After all, he told us what we want and made plans to properties he does not own. BTW, his angels, Lubert-Adler, are having troubles in places like Florida and their retail unit, Mervyn’s, which was acquired from Target, has filed for bankruptcy.
So now Mr. Goldin threatens that he may walk out on us and WW would not be able to raise the money it needs for the big project. Good. Let him go home and let the residents of WW decide what their needs are. And if we won’t be able to raise the money for the project why are we still wasting time and money talking about it? If the state, NJ DOT, NJ Transit, and other regional bodies have big regional plans for our redevelopment area — they should put their plans on the table now, accompanied by detailed fiscal analysis and a binding letter of commitment detailing how much they would contribute to the project (not advice, not for studies), starting now, not later.
If they don’t, we should say “thanks, it was nice talking to you, we’ll wait until you are ready.” We should restrict our limited resources, especially in these terrible economic times, to downtown Princeton Junction and a parking garage for WW residents. Period.
Hemi Nae
Wycombe Way, Princeton Junction
Transit Village Plan Defines Insanity?
After attending the West Windsor council’s review of Goldin’s plan for redevelopment at the train station, it felt like “deja vu all over again.”
Planning board consultant John Madden’s and traffic/circulation consultant Gary Davies’ joint evaluation of Goldin’s plan showed significant similarities to Hillier’s. Mr. Davies showed how a system of neglected roads and intersections would converge on the train station creating future gridlock with crisscrossing roadways, transit drop-off sites, Dinky lines, and BRT loops making congestion even worse than it is now.
Traffic feeding the station and traffic feeding the office complexes near Route 1 have never been separated out so that they could be addressed in a realistic way. The “east side connector,” “Route 1 in a cut,” and Meadow Road’s completion have yet to be factored in. Superimposing further density on this area makes little sense.
Mr. Madden led us through a mish-mash of land use/ownership issues. Brownfield clean-up sites, Amtrak property, environmentally sensitive land, grade-related crossing issues, an electrical substation, and private land ownership all combine to demand creative solutions. It is not apparent how changing zoning to increase housing, office and retail will address the specific needs of this site and improve quality of life for commuters and the surrounding communities.
This site existed as a train terminal for years and nothing more for a reason. People want to get in and get out — a point of arrival and departure. The surrounding wetlands with their various ecosystems and buffers apparently will become “collateral damage” if future development pushes into their space.
I think it is fair to conclude that the development is too large for this site. I suggest that the consultants consider a plan to “improve” and keep the current train station as a train station only, making ingress and egress top priority, segregating station traffic from through traffic and limiting parking solutions to West Windsor residents only.
I also suggest separating out the housing/office/retail elements and finding them a site further down the track, possibly on the Wyeth tract.
It is frustrating to watch Mhe Mayor and Council passively accept yet another offering of evidence by our consultants proving that whether designed by an independent firm (InterCap) or one contracted by the township (Hillier) the results are the same — that a massive transit village doesn’t fit and won’t work on this site.
Isn’t the definition of insanity when one keeps asking the same question expecting a different answer? It seems that this administration is intent on asking the residents the same question until they get the answer they want.
John Koran
Third Transit Village Myth: Less Traffic
This one is almost comical: we’re going to dump an additional 4,”000 trips each morning and afternoon rush hour into our traffic grid and we get less traffic congestion. Basically, traffic would increase 30 percent and somehow that means improved traffic flow. In reality, the worst day we’ve experienced since the Alexander overpass closed would be the best we could hope for under the Hillier or Goldin transit village plans.
Both plans exploit the doomsday scenario of absolute maximum business build out in the current undeveloped land. And it’s true, a maximum build out would be a traffic mess for West Windsor. What factors make that extremely remote? How about these:
We have 2 million square feet of unused office space in West Windsor now. At a historic absorption rate of 250,”000 square feet/year, that is an eight year supply of space. What company with half a brain is going to increase the office space supply in an already saturated market?
The last thing I want to see is more tax increases. The second to last thing I want to see is more traffic. What are we getting for the transit village’s crushing increase in traffic volume? Nothing on the plus side. On the negative side:
Increased risk to our kids on their way to school or playing in the afternoon. Massive congestion. Increased ancillary traffic. Sardine packed train platforms and trains
The developer fueled transit village plans must be scaled back to something that is good for our town as opposed to good for developer profits. No matter how they try to paint it, the big time transit village plans are both not necessary and a huge tax increase for our town.
The redevelopment needs to be scaled to provide improved amenities and additional parking for our residents. This can easily and economically be completed by doing some smart zoning like our neighbors in Plainsboro have done and letting New Jersey Transit and our Parking Authority plan for parking. The time is now to put the brakes on the grandiose plans and do something smart for our town.
Mike Baxter
Landing Lane, Princeton Junction
Did West Windsor Exceed State Cap?
On August 15, I wrote from my perspective about my individual property tax being raised 8.5 percent this year by an additional $1,”243, and Mayor Hsueh’s disingenuous letter to residents saying that he is doing a great job and omitting that fact that West Windsor residents will suffer another tremendous property tax increase.
Unfortunately Mayor Hsueh and his surrogates Christopher Marion (who is employed by the Mayor), and Michael Huey (who is a personal friend of the Mayor and appointed by him to be the Cable TV Advisory Board Chair), did not answer the three simple questions:
1. By what percentage did Hsueh reduce the annual budget? 2. What expenses have been reduced? 3. What increased services will each West Windsor resident receive for the additional $623.81 in property tax (average home, and many other residents will now pay north of an additional $1,”243)?
They did not answer the questions because they appear afraid to. My original statement was “that townships in New Jersey and New York that are similar in size and revenue as West Windsor have zero debt.” Unfortunately Marion’s written response was an unsuccessful attempt to distract West Windsor residents, where Marion changed my statement to just comparing West Windsor to townships in Mercer county rather than townships in similar size and tax revenue across New Jersey and New York, because it would expose Mayor Hsueh’s poor fiscal management.
Many townships that are similar in size and produce equivalent to West Windsor’s tax revenue have zero debt, and Mayor Hsueh is not saving you $802,”000, but actually costing you money!
Secondly Marion makes up excuses for why Mayor Hsueh has exceeded Governor Corzine’s 4 percent annual limit on property tax. Since it appears Mayor Hsueh and his surrogates still do not understand Governor Corzine’s limit, here is the Governor’s statement to all mayors and municipalities of New Jersey, “We have to move away from this (property) tax, not increase our reliance on it. But no homeowner, no property owner, should have an increase in their annual property tax bill greater than 4 percent.” Mayor Hsueh and his surrogates can make up whatever excuses they like for exceeding Corzine’s annual property tax bill limit of 4 percent, but Hsueh and his surrogates cannot fight public accountability and will.
As Thomas Jefferson said poor performing politicians will be held accountable by the public. Mayor Hsueh and his surrogates’ days in public office and government are most likely numbered.
Joseph Pascal
West Windsor
Editor’s note: Reporter Cara Latham spoke with Business Administrator Chris Marion and Chief Financial Officer Joanne Louth about the state’s cap on taxes.
For the 2008 budget, the state imposed a 4 percent cap — which means the township cannot raise taxes by more than 4 percent. Marion and Louth say the township has complied with that law.
There are, however, exceptions, to the cap. Marion explained that there are various add-ons that include changes in debt service, offsets to the state aid formula, increases in pensions, and the township’s ratables, all of which are exceptions to the cap. All together, the township’s tax levy was increased from $17,”651,”951 in 2007 to $19,”588,”268 in 2008, mainly because it had to offset a loss in state aid and because it had certain debt service obligations, Louth said. The actual increase was greater than 4 percent, but only because of the exceptions, Marion and Louth explained. The township actually fell under the cap by $103,”912.
The owner of a house assessed at the township average of $556,”973 will see an increase of about $189.37 in taxes, for a total $1,”748.90 tax bill this year.
