Union City gives Troy Towers residents free rides to PATH station at taxpayer expense: report

Jersey Journal ^

[SMGFan]

Residents of a luxury high-rise building in Union City have been receiving free rides to the PATH station in Hoboken -- at taxpayers' expense -- according to a "Shame Shame Shame" report on MyFoxNY Ch. 5 report last night.

The report showed footage of a Union City senior citizens van stopping and picking up passengers at Troy Towers, at 380 Mountain Rd., at the foot of 18th Street. Residents admit on camera that the service is free.

Mayor Brian Stack defended the free amenity. "They're the largest taxpayer in the city," he told Diaz on camera.

Not only that Stack, said, but the free rides are available to everyone in the city.

"We offer whoever needs assistance," Stack, also a state senator, told Diaz. "We pick up everywhere in the city. They stop at various locations ... whoever wants a ride in the city of Union City can get a ride.

Stack reiterated that rides for any Union City residents are free. This morning Stack said the service was well publicized to downtown residents and that the city regularly notifies residents that rides are available. Stack added that despite Diaz's claims in the report, other residents have used the free shuttle.

"Of course not," he told Diaz when asked if residents would be charged. "Anyone who needs a ride, whether it be to a doctor or to the bus station we would give the ride."

[SMGFan]

Sounds more like vote buying in Hudson county & first home of Bob Menendez

[kearnyirish2]

Actually, it sounds more like an enticement to get whites to re-colonize Union City. For decades it has been more of a Caribbean city than an American one. Cory Booker is talking about constructing a “teachers’ village” in Newark (in the downtown, away from black people); I’d imagine they would have to offer something similar to get the teachers to live there (our highly-paid teachers in NJ can really live wherever they’d like once they’re tenured).

While NJ has among the highest property taxes in the nation, it has some side effects that hurt the cities. It is hard to make the suburbs foot the bill when their own costs are so high, and it reduces the fed income tax burden via itemized deductions (meaning that though you pay high taxes, more are spent locally - where you have more control over it - than on the federal level).