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WTF?! $2300? That's $100 less than what I paid in 1997 for a 1-bedroom in Hamilton Park!

I think the underpayment only applies to the first phase. We're you looking at something in the first phase or a newer condo?

This is surprising to me. My husband and I were very interested in buying at port liberte around the time the market went south in 2009/10. We found a great place we could afford, but the taxes were outrageous (compared to even downtown JC) specifically because of the abatement. The problem is that the tax rate in an abatement is locked in at the value that the property was originally purchased for. Many of the places that sold in port liberte during the height of the market were grossly overvalued (the place we were looking at was listed at less than half of its sale price from 4 years earlier). We actually went to the tax office to ask whether we could get OUT of the abatement and pay regular taxes if we bought the place. The answer was "no", so we were unable to purchase the property. We simply could not afford (nor did we want to) pay $19,000 in taxes for a condo.
We ended up buying elsewhere in downtown. I am still dissapointed because I really liked the place.
As such, our impression was that Port Liberte was paying more than their fair share to the city coffers.

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Under this administration, this type of thing is not surprising. Too many happy hours.

It makes me wonder how many other condo projects were not having their abatements tracked correctly.

Exactly what I was thinking...

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HAHA!!

The cynical side of suspects that whoever was responsible for this error (ahem...oversight) might have lived in Port Liberte!?!?

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Lots!!!!!! This complex sits on land located in GV and they all got over like fat rats. I am currently paying 5k, I also can not wait for this meeting :)

Oh, I can't wait to hear about this meeting. :)

While I get that it would suck to have such an unexpected increase, the adjustment made to correct the error is not unfair.

What is unfair is that they haven't been paying their fair share. For 15 years, if I'm understanding this correctly!

They should consider themselves lucky that they aren't expected to pay retroactively.

As a concerned taxpayer, I would like to know how much revenue the city lost as a result of this error.

Jersey City officials will meet tonight with residents of the Port Liberte residential complex to discuss complaints from condo owners there who believe they may get an unexpected and unfair hike in their property tax bills this year.

Some of the residents may have been paying less in property taxes than they owed, a goof that city officials say they are working to correct. The residents will not have to pay retroactively, they said.

The 30-year tax break, or abatement, granted to Port Liberte 1 is in its 26th year, Tax Collector Maureen Cosgrove told The Jersey Journal this afternoon, which means some residents who have been paying a service charge up until this point may instead start having to pay 80 percent of the taxes that would be due if the complex didn?t get the break back in 1987.

When the abatement started, residents paid just the service charge. Starting in year 11, they paid either the service charge or 20 percent of the taxes that would be due ordinarily (whichever is higher), a percentage that rose 20 percent every five years. In 2017, the abatement is set to expire and residents must pay normal property taxes.

The percentages, set by state statute, rise every few years to ?ween? residents off the abatement, Cosgrove said.

But city spokeswoman Jennifer Morrill acknowledged that after an internal audit, city officials discovered that the Port Liberte 1 abatement ?had not been included for schedule tracking,? meaning some residents were paying less than they should have been.

Cosgrove said as an example that a resident who bought a Port Liberte condo when it first opened paid $2,300 last year in property taxes, a figure that could rise to as high as $7,000 this year.




The average taxpayer in Jersey City pays about $7,000 annually in property taxes.

?All abatements have been reviewed to ensure they are being implemented with the proper schedule,? Morrill said.

Business Administrator Jack Kelly, Tax Assessor Ed Toloza and Cosgrove will meet with Port Liberte residents tonight at 7 p.m. in the City Council chambers at City Hall, 280 Grove St.