TOMS RIVER – It’s been nine years but municipalities that still owe the federal government money after Superstorm Sandy will have their loans forgiven.
This amounts to more than $25 million in New Jersey alone. In Ocean County, there are $12 million outstanding in these Community Disaster Loans.
The bill forgiving these amounts was championed by Congressman Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-6th), Congressman Andy Kim (D-3rd), and Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-12th). It was signed into law as part of the government operations bill by President Joe Biden.
Some towns have already started repaying these loans but there was still a lot left over. The only way towns would have been able to pay it back would be to raise taxes.
Toms River Mayor Maurice Hill explained how it worked at a press conference. He said that the town lost $4 billion in ratables. That means that there was $4 billion in houses and other buildings that were destroyed. When this happens, the rest of the property owners in town have to fill the tax hole.
Additionally, Toms River was all-hands-on-deck immediately after the disaster. There was overtime for first responders like police, and there were additional costs for the public works department. They were clearing debris and carting away whole rooms of furniture and paying for tipping fees at the county dump.
The town had started to pay back its $5 million in loans, Hill said. Their accounting firm, Holman, Frenia & Allison attempted to appeal the loans, hoping not to pay them back, but they were unsuccessful. The town reached out to Congressman Kim who was able to put it into a bill to get it passed.
“We knew how hard families were struggling from Sandy,” Kim said. “The last thing we want to do is raise taxes,” especially during a pandemic.
He noted that there is a lot of bickering on Capitol Hill, but this bill shows how bipartisan support can cut through that if everyone has the same goal of helping the people.
Pallone credited the New Jersey Organizing Project for working to get this bill started.
Joseph Mangino, a co-founder and Board President of the New Jersey Organizing Project, said his group was founded after Sandy to urge the government to “Finish The Job.” That job was disaster relief. “Nine years after the storm and we’re still trying to finish the job.”
He listed off a number of agencies that failed people, from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, down to the banks who were loaning money. The Stafford resident said he hopes to fix the disaster response that failed so many people. Currently, victims of Hurricane Ida are also going through this.
The next goal is to eliminate clawbacks, he said. This is when individuals were loaned money, and then policies changed and the lender ordered the money back. People are still suffering through this.
A reporter asked where the money will go to pay for to fund the loan forgiveness. Pallone answered that when there’s a disaster in another state, New Jersey pays for that relief with their taxes. New Jersey pays more to the federal government than it gets back. Everyone is paying into the same pool, and everyone helps each other.
According to federal figures, the debt that was forgiven (including principal and interest) for local towns are:
- Beach Haven: $1,902,919.36
- Berkeley: $665,743.04
- Central Regional Board of Education: $408,594.91
- Little Egg Harbor: $4,416,610.54
- Ocean Gate Board of Education: $13,481.38
- Point Pleasant: $3,531,935.82
- Point Pleasant Beach: $800,128.12
- Seaside Park Board of Education: $143,799.06
- Stafford: $1,701,242.42
- Toms River: $2,994,642.22
- Tuckerton School District: $41,393.34
