HUMC faces $10M tax bill if city sues non-profit and wins

A ladder in the men's room on the 3rd floor of Hackensack City Hall -- next to City Council Chambers -- could serve as an escape route for officials should angry residents besiege them for refusing to sue and challenge the non-profit, tax-exempt status of Hackensack University Medical Center.

The ladder leads to the roof, City Hall employees said.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Hackensack University Medical Center and other non-profit hospitals in North Jersey are scrambling to avoid a court ruling that would strip them of their tax-exempt status.

And figures released today by Hackensack Tax Assessor Art Carlson show why:

As a non-profit, HUMC owns $257 million in property that is totally tax exempt, including the main hospital and parking garage; and cancer and research centers.

That is far higher than previously thought, and nearly twice the figure published in The Record in a Page 1 story last Nov. 24.

If the city sues HUMC and wins, the hospital could face a property tax bill of more than $10 million, Carlson said.

That would be on top of the $4,877,000 HUMC already pays the city on an additional $139 million in property that is taxable.

The enormous tax exemption has shifted the burden onto long-suffering homeowners and commercial property tax payers, who face higher bills every year with no end in sight.

Morristown suit

Another non-profit, Morristown Medical Center, was sued by Morristown, resulting in a landmark Tax Court decision against the hospital.

Judge Vito Bianco ruled that non-profit hospitals in the early 21st century are essentially "legal fictions," The Record reported on Nov. 24.

The hospital settled, agreeing to pay Morristown $15.5 million over three years.

To avoid the same fate, HUMC and other non-profits in Ridgewood, Teaneck, Englewood, Wayne and Paterson have been backing a bill in the state Legislature that would require them to pay a "community service contribution," Staff Writer Lindy Washburn reported on Monday.

Of course, the "contribution" is just that, far smaller than their tax exemption under an antiquated 1913 law.

Under the proposed state law, HUMC would pay the city $690,762 a year -- essentially chump change.

Local news?

Bergen County readers got a good screwing from local Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes and her deputy, Dan Sforza.

Today's Local section is dominated by Passaic County news (L-1, L-2, L-3 and L-6). 

Even the local obituary is about a man from Clifton (L-6).

The closest Sykes and Sforza got to Hackensack news was a story from neighboring Maywood (L-6).

Huge mass-transit gains may come too late to bust traffic

Replacing the Port Authority's antiquated midtown Manhattan bus terminal, above; a $3 billion overhaul of New York Penn Station, and new tunnels and tracks to double the capacity of trains from New Jersey to Manhattan are among plans to expand mass transit in the metropolitan area. A story on Page 1 of The Record today reports that "with any luck," [new tunnels, tracks and bridges] "should be completed in the next 20 years."

Meanwhile, backward-looking residents of Tenafly have rejected the extension of NJ Transit's zero-emissions Hudson-Bergen Light Rail to their wealthy borough, meaning the new line would end at Englewood Hospital and Medical Center in Englewood.

Editor's note: I wrote that today's story on the new Hudson River rail tunnels project is by Christopher Maag, the transportation reporter. But the takeout is by Paul Berger, and it's not clear whether he replaced Maag on the beat.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The Record has ignored growing traffic congestion in North Jersey and at the Hudson River crossings for more than a decade.

Meanwhile, editors, reporters and columnists haven't addressed mass-transit crowding, including the lack of rush-hour seats on buses and trains, or challenged officials to expand capacity.

Some of these same reporters have written front-page stories on "highways of the future," and focused almost exclusively on opposition to the extension of NJ Transit's Light Rail to Bergen County.

Bigger, better

Now, Staff Writer Paul Berger reports the new Gateway tunnel-and-rail plan is far superior to the ARC project that Governor Christie killed in 2010, and will give many North Jersey commuters a coveted "one-seat ride" into Manhattan (A-1).

Of course, all of these grandiose plans ignore the Port Authority's continued refusal to expand the single reverse bus lane into the Lincoln Tunnel during the morning rush or operate it in the afternoon.

And traffic congestion certainly will get worse before it gets better, aggravating air pollution and leading to tens of millions of dollars in lost productivity.

Hospital deal

The front page today also carries another story on a bill requiring Hackensack University Medical Center and other non-profit hospitals to contribute to their host communities in lieu of property taxes (A-1).

HUMC and other hospitals fear more lawsuits, like the one Morristown filed, leading to a landmark state Tax Court decision that raised doubts about their century old property tax exemptions.

None of the stories by Staff Writer Lindy Washburn have said whether the bill, if it becomes law, would prevent Hackensack and other towns from filing lawsuits like the successful one against Morristown Medical Center.

That case was settled, and the hospital agreed to pay $15.5 million over 10 years.

Compare that to the $690,762 HUMC would be assessed under the proposal in the state Legislature.

Second look

Freelancer Michael J. Feeney's upbeat profile of Anthony Hutchinson -- Englewood's "healthy juice man" -- spent a good deal of time describing his celebrity clients, but contained no prices (Better Living cover on Wednesday).

Maybe, the suggestion is that ordinary people can't afford Hutchinson's fresh-pressed vegetable and fruit juices.

Still, readers welcomed the rare focus on health and nutrition from Food Editor Esther Davidowitz.

Opposite the continuation of Feeney's article on Wednesday was a recipe for Breakfast Tacos with 4 slices of artery clogging bacon from clueless freelancer Kate Morgan Jackson of Upper Saddle River.

Editors give us a rare front page with plenty of local news

At Drago Shoe Repair on the upper level of the Port Authority Bus Terminal in midtown Manhattan, a shoe shine costs $5, and a tip of less than $5 will get you a lot of attitude from the man who does your shoes.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The Record's belated recognition of decades-old property tax inequity in Hackensack, Englewood and other North Jersey communities with non-profit hospitals is front and center today.

Two other local stories appear on Page 1, including one on a family of seven Syrian refugees moving into a Paterson apartment next week with the help of an interfaith group, this despite hate mongers like Governor Christie (A-1).

For Editor Martin Gottlieb, a onetime globetrotter at The New York Times, today's front page is rare acknowledgement that he is now running a local daily paper based in Woodland Park.

Ailing city

Hackensack University Medical Center's $128.7 million in untaxed property has been an issue for city homeowners who have been paying a disproportionate share for years.

Yet, as the hospital continued to expand in Hackensack, The Record ignored the controversy until "a precedent-setting Tax Court decision and recent settlement ... between Morristown and non-profit Morristown Medical Center."

Morristown settled its case for $15.5 million, but HUMC got off easy -- a settlement of tax appeals that will bring Hackensack only $5.1 million over the next three years (A-1 and A-6).

And pleas from residents for the hospital to make in-kind contributions to the city have been largely ignored by Mayor John Labrosse, a hospital employee, and other members of the City Council.

Trump and 9/11

An editorial criticizing GOP presidential hopeful Donald Trump shows how little the editors know about the Syrian community in Paterson, which boasts a bustling Middle Eastern district with restaurants, bakeries and other businesses (A-10).

"There have been various reports, over the years and even now, that people were dancing in South Paterson, home to one of the largest Arab and Muslim populations in the region, during and after the attacks of 9/11," the editorial reports.

But the Syrians who first settled in Paterson in the late 19th century to work in the city's silk mills were Christian, not Muslim, and the community, which has spread to other towns in Passaic County, remains predominantly Christian, with no love for their Muslim persecutors.

A news story on Trump's claims also says Paterson had "a large Muslim population" on 9/11 (L-1).

Second look

A Nov. 14 editorial, the day after the Paris attacks, 
contained an embarrassing error on the date of 9/11 that wasn't corrected on A-2 until four days later.

"In this country, we recall all too well that day in September 2011, and the enormity of an incident in which 3,000 lives were lost in a matter of minutes ...," the editorial said.

Of course, 9/11 took place in 2001, not 2011, but the error was never fixed in the North Jersey.com version of the editorial I looked at today.

HUMC, other hospitals finally address what ails taxpayers

A Joseph M. Sanzari Inc. company vehicle in Hackesnack, where the Children's Hospital at Hackesnack University Medical Center bears the name of the construction magnate.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

As Hackensack University Medical Center gobbled up the neighborhood around it, the property tax burden on every resident of the city grew heavier.

As a non-profit, hundreds of millions of dollars in HUMC property is tax-exempt, shifting the burden to home and business owners.

Today's front-page story in The Record on property tax deals with non-profit hospitals only mentions HUMC in passing.

Perfect together?

The newspaper and the hospital have a long relationship, including the years Jennifer A. Borg sat on the hospital board, and HUMC advertising appeared regularly on NorthJersey.com.

Borg is general counsel of North Jersey Media Group, publisher of The Record, which was headquartered in Hackensack for more than 110 years.

She is the older sister of Publisher Stephen A. Borg and daughter of NJMG Chairman Malcolm A. Borg.

The Record's coverage of HUMC expansion in its residential neighborhood was far less extensive than later coverage of The Valley Hospital's building plans. 

That was the case even though the Ridgewood hospital would be building within its existing campus.

In Hackensack, HUMC took a lot of residential property, including a Prospect Avenue home that housed a famous jazz studio where Thelonious Monk recorded "Hackensack" in 1954.

In recent years, the hospital has ignored Hackensack Police Director Mike Mordaga, who asked for the assignment of medical staff to the county shelter on South River Street to eliminate police having to take so many homeless people to the emergency room at city expense.

Neglected story

Since I moved to Hackensack in 2007, today's story may be only the first or second in The Record to discuss the burden on property tax payers of the hospital's non-profit status.

And there hasn't been any mention of two other huge Hackensack non-profits, Bergen County and Fairleigh Dickinson University, that aggravate the problem.

Nor has the Woodland Park daily reported on residents who have called on city officials to negotiate with the non-profits for regular payments or services in lieu of taxes. 

Where life and death are highly profitable

A congressional proposal to end door-to-door mail delivery -- reported on Page 1 of The Record today -- would intensify the war over the four metered parking spaces in front of the Hackensack Post Office on State Street, above.

By Victor E. Sasson
Editor

The owners of the for-profit Meadowlands Hospital Medical Center laughed all the way to the bank while stiffing nurses and the IRS, The Record reports today (A-1).

In less than three years, the 230-bed Secaucus hospital paid its owners $14.4 million, Staff Writer Lindy Washburn says.

Her shocking report identifies principals of investment syndicate MHA LLC as Woodcliff Lake anesthesiologist Richard Lipsky, Tamara Dunaev, Pavel Pogodin and Anastasia Burlyuk.

From the sound of their names, people entering the country illegally to compete for low-wage jobs that Americans refuse to do aren't the country's real immigration problem, as the media would have us think.

I'd also like to see Washburn report on salaries and profits at another hospital, Hackensack University Medical Center, whose tax-exempt status is a crushing burden for city homeowners and other property tax payers.

More partisanship

What is achieved by The Record and other media reporting every speech by President Obama as if he is still campaigning for a second term, as the Woodland Park daily does in today's A-1 photo caption?

By continuing to report on the partisan pissing matches paralyzing government, The Record cheats readers and neglects its responsibility to report on the issues they are most interested in.

Local schmooze

Another correction from the disoriented Local news editors appears on A-2 today. They can't get names right and don't know what town they're in.

Today's Local front is strong, for a change, but why focus on speeders on one Teaneck street when they are everywhere and enforcement is at an historic low (L-1)?

And why allow Road Warrior John Cichowski to encourage speeders, as he did in recent, negative columns about red-light cameras and so-called road hogs, who obey the speed limit?

Another copy desk screw-up appears in the photo caption with the East Cedar Lane speeding story. The caption calls speeding "reckless driving" (L-1).
 
Doing their jobs

Pages L-2 and L-3 resemble a Law & Order insert today, complete with a filler photo of a minor accident in place of legitimate news (L-3).

The copy desk came up with another stunning over line:

RESCUE WORKERS AID ACCIDENT VICTIM

It could just as well say:

RESCUE WORKERS DO THEIR JOBS

Why is this photo in the paper? 

Thanks, Bon Jovi

The Better Living cover story on the massive Buick Electra being used on Bon Jovi's concert stage only reminds some older readers of the unsafe cars produced by the Big Three in the 1950s, despite their size and weight (BL-1).

Don't forget to recycle your newspaper right away

I voted at the Fairmount Elementary School in Hackensack last November and again in April, May and this month. If Governor Christie gets his way, I'll be returning to the school to vote in August, October and November.




Once you've read the funeral tributes to U.S. Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg on Page 1 of The Record today, you might as well put the paper in the recycling bin.

Don't look for any important state or local news on the front page.

Another follow-up to Governor Christie's decision to squander $24 million on an August primary and October election to pick Lautenberg's successor ends up on A-3.

Editor Marty Gottlieb wastes A-1 space on yet another story and yet another vagina-monologue  column on Julie Hermann, Rutgers' incoming athletic director.

Christie's agenda

Christie attended services for Lautenberg, and was probably wondering whether he'll be remembered for perverting public service into a conservative, anti-social agenda. 

The Record's editorial on the special primary and election for U.S. senator ran on Wednesday, carefully justifying Christie's decision on partisan political grounds rather than discussing whether it is good for taxpayers and voters.

Hospital expansions

On head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes' Local front, what is probably the 100th story about expansion of The Valley Hospital reports continuing opposition from neighbors (L-1).

Hackensack readers can only recall what poor coverage The Record gave to complaints from neighbors about repeated expansions of Hackensack University Medical Center.

Two possible reasons are North Jersey Media Group Vice President and General Counsel Jennifer A. Borg, who once served on the hospital board, and all of the advertising the hospital bought in the paper and on the North Jersey.com Web site.

Wealthy hospital wines and dines Hackensack officials

Deputy Mayor Marlin G. Townes, second from left, announced near the end of Tuesday night's meeting at City Hall that he and other Hackensack officials had attended the lavish 125th anniversary celebration of Hackensack University Medical Center.

A growing Hackensack University Medical Center has destroyed the residential character of its neighborhood, but as a non-profit pays no taxes to the city of Hackensack on property with an assessed value of $130 million.

The medical center uses many city services and, a few years ago, took over the profitable ambulance service from the city Fire Department.

Only a fraction of its patients live in Hackensack.

So, why did City Council members and other city officials attend a party to celebrate the medical center's 125th anniversary in luxury suites at the MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford?

City officials should be negotiating with hospital officials for payments in lieu of taxes, not sipping free champagne.

Freeloaders

Councilman John Labrosse, the only incumbent seeking another term in the May 14 election, works at the medical center, and has been totally ineffective in getting HUMC to give back to the city. 

On Tuesday night, Deputy Mayor Marlin G. Townes, who described himself as a Giants fan, gushed about the party at MetLife Stadium. 

Mayor Michael R. Melfi praised the medical center and said the city of Hackensack is lucky to have the world-class complex.

Councilwoman Karen K. Sasso, who also attended, described the celebration as "a business meeting."

City Attorney Joseph C. Zisa Jr. said he didn't attend, presumably because he was too busy rubber stamping payments of tens of thousands in legal fees to fellow lawyers.

I didn't see a story about the celebration or the attendees in The Record.

Today's paper

Editor Marty Gottlieb devotes two of the four elements on Page 1 today to lawyers -- who appear to be at the root of all of our problems in Hackensack and North Jersey, where high legal fees restrict access to the courts.

There are more lawyers involved in defending doctors and others in the Medicare and insurance fraud story at the bottom of A-1.

The poorly edited story should have focused on the laboratory owning Nicoll brothers from Wayne and Mountain Lakes -- one of whom allegedly received $33 million in a six-year period that he blew on exotic cars, private jet travel and a Manhattan apartment for a "female companion" (A-6).

Dissing Hackensack

Don't look for any news from Hackensack in the Local news section, even though a reporter from The Record attended Tuesday night's council meeting.

The Local front is filled with court and process stories, but a heart-breaking piece on a hit-and-run victim is relegated to L-2, when it should have been on A-1.

Vladimir Artavia, 31, a native of Costa Rica, left his job as a waiter at Bel Posto, an expensive restaurant on Prospect Avenue in Hackensack, when he was knocked down by a hit-and-run driver and left to die.

Head Assignemt Editor Deirdre Sykes and her deputy, Dan Sforza, leave out the reason Artavia was "walking home" to Hasbrouck Heights.

He and other restaurant workers are paid so little -- less than $3 an hour -- they can't afford cars.

But God forbid Sykes and Sforza should wake up from their news comas and expose the dark side of restaurants -- one of the paper's biggest advertisers. 

Old news in Hackensack: Taxes are going up

Architectural details on the Salvation Army building on Bergen Street in Hackensack, above and below. The building is across the street from the Bergen County Bar Association.

The Hackensack City Council introduced a 2013 Municipal Budget on Tuesday night that would raise property taxes 3.3% or $118.84 on the average home assessed at $243,020.

Although Staff Writer Hannan Adely sat through the entire meeting, residents won't find a word about the proposed budget in The Record or on North Jersey.com.

A story about the proposed Teaneck Municipal Budget is on the Local front today and on the Web site.

Head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes ignored Hackensack's budget in 2012 and 2011, and residents never saw a story about its introduction or approval in those years.

Labrosse awakens

Councilman John Labrosse, who has been sleep-walking through meetings for four years, apparently nodded off during budget meetings and, on Tuesday night, he was the lone vote against introducing the city's plan.

Labrosse said he still had questions about the budget, but he received a tongue-lashing from Mayor Michael Melfi.

Street repairs?

Teaneck's capital budget includes $1.2 million to resurface roads and repair sidewalks and curbs, The Record reports today.

But Eye on The Record could not find a similar appropriation in Hackensack's Municipal Data Sheet, which was released with the city's proposed spending plan. 

Tax-exempt property

Hackensack lists the "general state of the economy, impact of tax appeals, flat state aid and retirements" as factors impacting the budget.

But the city doesn't acknowledge its long-term problem: 

Hundreds of millions of dollars in tax-exempt buildings at the non-profit Hackensack University Medical Center and at Fairleigh Dickinson University's Hackenack campus.

The Bergen County Courthouse, Administration Building, Jail and other county buildings also are tax-exempt.

Too young to serve?

Today's front-page story on teens who serve on school boards doesn't explain why the food is so bad in high schools, including the one in Hackensack (A-1).

Page A-2 carries two corrections and a clarification today.

More road thrills

Sykes and Dan Sforza, the deputy assignment editor, couldn't find room for a story on Hackensack's budget plan, but ran another Road Warrior column on a non-issue: electronic overhead signs on highways (L-1).

Staff Writer John Cichowski's chief value to the paper is to pad his columns with e-mails from drivers so readers can see their names in print.

Cashing in on disease

The Local front is dominated by the planned June 1 reopening of Pascack Valley Hospital "as the county's first for-profit hospital."

If the highly profitable HUMC can pay taxes in Westwood, why can't it pay something in lieu of taxes in Hackensack, where its tax-exempt status is a burden residents can no longer afford?

The story says "all the furniture and toilets are capable of supporting patients up to 400 pounds," apparently in anticipation of having Sykes and Governor Christie as patients.

From left, Councilman Marlin G. Townes Jr., City Attorney Joseph Zisa and Mayor Michael R. Melfi at Tuesday night's meeting on the third floor of City Hall.

More legal bills

Also at Tuesday night's meeting, Melfi, other council members and City Attorney Joseph Zisa Jr. defended the payment of more than $500,000 in legal bills racked up by two police officers who were acquitted of criminal charges.

Zisa criticized Labrosse for voting to approve the payment, then going to The Record and saying he is having second thoughts.

Sgt. Thomas Aletta and Capt. Danilo Garcia were charged $225 and $390 an hour, respectively, but Zisa has refused to ask a judge to rule on whether the fees are reasonable.

Aletta and Garcia were accused of intervening in a robbery and assault investigation involving two sons of then-Police Chief Ken Zisa's girlfriend.

This appears to be another case of Zisa -- the ex-chief's cousin -- and council members rubber-stamping huge payments to cover legal fees from politically connected lawyers.   

Let's hope voters wake up to this sleight-of-hand, split their votes on May 14 and kick out the clueless Labrosse, the only incumbent seeking a new term.

His own campaign literature is silent on what he has accomplished since 2009.

Unschooled chef

Also in The Record today, The Better Living cover story on aspiring chef Yitzi Taber, 17, shows he has a lot to learn about how even many kosher chickens are raised on harmful animal antibiotics (BL-1).

Does he really want to serve his Garlic Chicken Rollatini to family members without going to the trouble of finding drug-free or organic birds?