Halsey spent 19 years in prison before DNA testing proved he was not the killer of two young Plainfield children in 1985.
The $1,365,200 portion will be paid by the city in four installments of $341,300. It was too late to include the first installment in the 2015 budget, so it will be charged against the 2016 budget as an emergency appropriation. With the second installment also due in 2016, the total owed next year will be $682,600.
Asked about the tax impact of the settlement, Finance Director Ron West described it this way:
"If the first payment of $341,300 had made it in the 2015 budget , the impact for the average home assessed at $110,000 would be $30.69. The 2016 budget will reflect two payments totaling $682,600. Using the 2015 municipal budget requirements as the baseline, the impact of the litigation settlement will be $61.39 per average home assessed at $110,000 in 2016."
However, if revenues increase in 2016, the appropriation will be offset to some degree. For example, a surge in development could yield new ratables. The administration is actively seeking grants and has audited departmental budgets for savings. The actual impact may not be known until the end of the 2016 budget process.
(For more on the Halsey case, see Sergio Bichao's excellent story on the $12.5 million settlement in the Courier News.)
Any official comment on what impact this settlement will have on city's insurance premiums going forward? As a homeowner, I am going to be out hundreds of dollars. There goes the new front walk. There goes business at city restaurants. Plainfield will be uglier and poorer for this injustice. Too bad the law doesn't allow taxpayers to recoup the cost from the bad actors. One way to hold them accountable is to remember this cost when negotiating the next salary contract.
ReplyDeleteI hope the city council will be more judicious with their spending and allow this administration more lee way in revitalizing the city. It is the only way taxes will be relieved from the taxpayers backs.
ReplyDeleteThat means that DPW does not get the additional headcount for payback jobs, and the Department of Economic Development gets more positions that will help in bringing in revenue.
The police involved have retired and so are the other folks who were involved in this massive miscarriage of justice, so forget about getting anything from them. But we must remember that it was ONE JUROR who wouldn't go along with the prosecution's demand for the death penalty--that's why Byron Halsey is still alive to collect damages that are by nature insufficient to compensate for all he endured. But this case is a great example of how ONE PERSON can make a difference!
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