New Jersey is corrupt. Who knew? From John Stossel at theburningplatform.com:
Home prices keep climbing. It’s another reason to let people build housing.
But corrupt politicians sometimes prevent that.
The little town of Edgewater, New Jersey, sits right across the Hudson River from Manhattan. A developer, Maxal Group, bought a dumpsite there and proposed building more than a thousand new waterfront apartments.
Why? The development would generate $12 million a year in taxes for Edgewater. To please the politicians, Maxal even offered to build parks and a school at no cost.
But Edgewater Mayor Michael McPartland and his town council rejected the parks, school and extra tax revenue.
Instead, they spent tax money on lawyers to try to seize the property using eminent domain law. They claimed they wanted to use site to park garbage trucks.
Why would they do this? So garbage could have a beautiful view of Manhattan’s skyline?