When he took office in 2005, John Picard took the unprecedented step of selling delinquent tax liens to American Tax Funding Partners...of which Ed Marcus is the majority partner.
Last week, the New York Times reported about the problems of selling property tax liens. This was followed up by a Sunday Editorial. These two articles - by one of the world's most respected newspapers (sadly, the West Haven Voice didn't seem to make it on that list; musta been an oversight) - tell why it's a bad idea for governments to sell property tax liens. For those who didn't follow the links, basically the fact is that, while the City gets money up front now, all these foreclosures (on top of the tidal wave of mortgage defaults) all tend to lower the values of all other properties in the City; and in the end, our taxes go up, while our property values go down.
Mr. Marcus, incidentally, was involved with a similar scheme in New Haven during the late 1990's which proved to be a disaster to the City's efforts to reclaim blighted neighborhoods. A link to this saga will appear soon.
Ed Marcus, also incidentally, is a major contributor to the campaign committees of John Picard...as is his wife and daughter (and the Marcus Law Firm).
As Mr. Picard said recently: "You do the math."
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3 comments:
Sounds like Mr. Picard needs to take some finance courses.
Or at least learn hot to read the business section of the Times...
It is also amazing that the Marcus Law frim was the one to defend Setvey D. in his case in R.I. A little quid pro quo? One has wonder. It is also true that his law frim and extended family have given the most donations to Picard. Our Mayor knows how to take care of things dealing with money and finances. Just look at his donation list to learn the truth!!!!! Remember come November and dump them out of office!!!!!
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