Could New Jersey pick up the tab for your Florida crib?

This Florida alligator will take a smaller bite out of you than the New Jersey tax collector. .

By Paul Mulshine | Star-Ledger Columnist
I was down in Florida the other day communing with my many high-school friends who have moved there when I came upon yet another of those articles ranking New Jersey in the top tier of states from which people are moving.
As I read it, I was sitting in the house of a friend who has every reason to move his residency out of the reach of the New Jersey Division of Revenue.The house in question has two bedrooms and is on a lake, one that comes with the alligator that seems to be de rigueur these days in Florida. Next door is the community clubhouse and pool.
The finest beaches in Florida are but a 10-minute drive away.
The cost of this crib? A mere $80,000 when my old high-school pal bought it two years ago.
That got me doing the math that so many Jerseyans do when they contemplate escaping the cold north for the Sunshine State.
My friend reported that the total cost of keeping up the house, including the club fees and taxes, is about $500 a month. That’s a mere $6,000 a year.
My friend pays several thousand more than that in New Jersey income taxes each year. But if he were to stay in his second home for six months and a day of every year, he could declare himself a resident of Florida, which has no income tax.
At that point, he would be saving more in taxes than he is spending to buy his second home. He told me he will soon be meeting with his financial advisor to discuss that very issue.
That sort of thing is far from uncommon, said another financial adviser. Josh Jalinski, who has an office in Toms River, told me he meets many a wealthy senior citizen who is planning to make the switch to Florida residency.
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Mystery water invades a New Jersey home, 500K gallons and counting in less than five months

Gerard and Penelope Garcia stand on their front lawn in February 2019. They posted a sign that asks for help to stop water coming into their home. (Photo courtesy of Gerard and Penelope Garcia)
Gerard and Penelope Garcia stand on their front lawn in February 2019. They posted a sign that asks for help to stop water coming into their home.

By Karin Price Mueller | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
Every 50 seconds, for nearly a year, about 2.5 gallons of water has flowed into Gerard and Penelope Garcia’s Summit home.
You read that right: about 2.5 gallons of water every 50 seconds. Rain or shine.
The Garcias have become water detectives, but their sleuthing hasn’t solved the problem.
Neither have attempts from the couple’s water company, New Jersey American Water (NJAW), nor have efforts from elected officials, inspectors and engineers from Summit, Gerard Garcia said.
The water just keeps flowing into their basement, spewing from a source no one can find.
“It’s costing us our home. Right now our home is worth nothing,” Penelope Garcia said. “There’s no way we can sell it. We can’t even leave it for long periods of time because we don’t know what will happen to the basement.”
The first water invasion
The Garcias purchased their home in 2012, and the first sign of trouble came in April 2014.
During a powerful rainstorm, the couple’s sump pump – which they never needed before – failed. The basement flooded with several inches of water, Gerard Garcia said.
The couple assumed the water came from the heavy rains, so they fixed the sump pump.
But that didn’t correct the water problem. Instead, days after the rain stopped, the sump pump kept pumping water. Instead of the basement, the water now flooded into Garcia’s and a neighbor’s yard.
Garcia contacted NJAW, the water company.
NJAW didn’t find a line break at the Garcia home, but it did find one at a nearby condo development.
Garcia said he learned from NJAW that the home flooded in 2008 after a similar line break at the condos.
Over the next several weeks, Garcia said and records show, fixes were made to multiple pipes at the development, but that didn’t stop the water flow into Garcia’s basement.
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Suez to remove 50,000 feet of lead pipes this year in NJ

Scott Fallon reports for the North Jersey Record

About 25 percent of the lead pipes in Bergen and Hudson County will be replaced this year under a plan unveiled Thursday by Suez water company to help reduce high lead levels found in water pouring from the taps of homes last year.

The $15 million project will remove 50,000 feet of lead pipes – the equivalent of 34 Empire State Buildings laid end to end – in more than a dozen towns and cities served by the Paramus-based division of the worldwide company.

“It was important to us to make sure that our customers in these homes know we are doing everything we can for them,” Mark McKoy, vice president and general manager, said in a statement.

In what it calls a “sweeping attack,” Suez will replace more than 9 miles of pipes beginning with eight towns that have the highest number of lead service lines – the pipes that connect the water main to the property line. They are:

Teaneck
Rutherford
Hackensack
Ridgefield Park
Bogota
North Bergen
Union City
West New York.

The announcement comes a month after officials in several towns complained that Suez was moving too slowly to replace its lead lines at the minimum-mandated rate of 7 percent a year.

Oradell Council President Tracy Schoenberg, who lead the fight to get Suez to increase its replacement efforts, said she was pleased with both the announcement and the choice of towns because they have some of the oldest and most widespread lead lines.

But Schoenberg said she wants to know what Suez’s plan is beyond 2019.

“It’s great that they’re doing 25 percent this year, but will they be able to keep up that pace in the next three years so they can get all of their lead out of the system,” she said. “It puts communities like mine on the back burner without any firm idea of when they’re going to start work here.”

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Bill to ban foam containers advances in Maryland


Katie Pyzyk reports for WasteDive

Maryland’s House of Delegates has advanced legislation (HB109) that would prohibit food service providers from selling food and drinks in single-use containers made from expanded polystyrene — commonly referred to as foam. Related legislation (SB285) advanced in the Maryland Senate earlier this month.

Covered establishments would include restaurants, grocery stores, food trucks, schools, movie theaters and publicly- or privately-owned cafeterias. The most recent bill language would include cups, plates, trays, take-out containers and egg cartons. Containers for meat, poultry or seafood would be excluded.

If the bill passes, food service providers would be forced to stop offering foam containers by July 1, 2020. Violators would be notified and receive three months to correct their behavior — continued non-compliance after that period would subject them to a penalty of up to $250.

If this legislation becomes law, Maryland will be the first state in the country to ban foam food and drink containers.

The bill includes provisions stating the Maryland Department of the Environment will be responsible for spearheading public education campaigns about the ban before and after it takes effect. As the legislation currently stands, the department would have the authority to grant waivers for up to one year on a case-by-case basis if it determines that certain entities would suffer undue hardship by complying with the ban.
While Maryland would be the first state to implement a foam ban, a number of local municipalities have already done so: Baltimore passed a foam ban in 2018 (set to take effect later this year), while other cities across the country including Seattle, San Francisco and New York — have enacted similar bans.

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NY lawmakers pass bill to block waste incinerator

Cole Rosengren reports for WasteDive

The New York Senate has unanimously passed a bill (S2270A), known as the “Finger Lakes Community Preservation Act,” designed to effectively block plans for a new incinerator by prohibiting certification under the New York State Environmental Quality Review Act. Following the passage of a matching bill (A5029A) in the state Assembly, the decision now rests with Gov. Andrew Cuomo.


Plans for the estimated $365 million facility, 2,640 ton-per-day facility from Circular enerG have faced vociferous opposition from local groups. “We urge Governor Cuomo to sign this bill so we can put this outrageous proposal behind us and go back to growing the Finger Lakes economy,” said Seneca Lake Guardian President Joseph Campbell in a statement.

“The bill is a real step back for the environment. It would just encourage landfilling, which is the worst option for waste disposal,” said Alan Knauf, an attorney for Circular enerG, via email. “Circular will continue to pursue approval from local authorities, and is awaiting a decision on its Article 78 proceedings challenging rezoning decisions.”

Similar legislation came close to passing both chambers last year, but fell short when the Assembly didn’t bring it to a vote in June prior to the end of its 2018 session. Gov. Cuomo is already on the record opposing the project as of a May 2018 statement, which called it “not consistent” with state public health and environmental goals. He promised to “consider all options” in stopping it from coming to fruition.
Since it was first proposed for the town of Romulus in 2017, the Circular enerG project has become a lightning rod for a variety of larger issues playing out in upstate New York and the U.S. at large. Pitched as a way to develop the former Seneca Army Depot parcel and provide more revenue to local governments, the project has since taken on a different reputation.

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