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Financial consultant outlines how PILOTs work and urges rigorous cost–benefit review
Summary
At a Waldwick Borough Council meeting, Brian Morris of Phoenix Advisers presented how PILOTs (payments in lieu of taxes) can finance projects that are not otherwise bankable, and residents and council members pressed for strict guardrails, school-impact analysis and independent cost–benefit studies before any local agreement.
Brian Morris, a financial consultant with Phoenix Advisers, told Waldwick council members on Wednesday that a PILOT — a payment in lieu of taxes — is a municipal tool meant to help “spur economic growth and help get projects done and built that otherwise would not be financable.”
Morris said PILOTs typically apply to the improvement value of a property and can be structured as either short-term agreements or long-term exemptions of 15–30 years. He described two common payment formulas: a percent of the developer’s annual gross revenue (the more common method) and, less commonly, a percent of total project cost. He noted that a 10% payment of gross revenue is the…
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