On Thursday, Hamilton Township (Mercer) Mayor and League Board Member Jeff Martin, along with Robbinsville Township Mayor David Fried, testified before the Assembly Telecommunications and Utilities Committee regarding the outdated law that permits utilities to determine whether they are required to pay the Business Personal Property Tax (BPPT).
As a reminder, the Business Personal Property Tax (BPPT) is a tax collected by municipalities from telecommunications companies. Based on a State statute, when a telecommunications company provides 51% or more of a local telephone exchange to a company that is operating machinery, apparatus, or equipment used to refine petroleum, the company is subject to pay the municipality in which it is operating a tax. Based upon their records, which are not publicly available, a company can claim they are no longer providing 51% or more local telephone exchanges.
Absent legislation to clarify this tax, the League believes that every municipality faces the prospect of costly annual tax court filings, like Hopewell, as seen in the Verizon v. Hopewell case. Currently, there are a minimum of 127 other municipalities in the position of Hopewell Borough, and well over 60 pending trials.
Please review the League’s BPPT page on the issue for a sample resolution and relevant legislation.
Contacts: Mike Cerra, Executive Director, mcerra@njlm.org, 609-695-3481, x120, and Erin Knoedler, Legislative Analyst, eknoedler@njlm.org, x116.