Theme park parking fee might invite legal fight
BY JOYCE BLAY
Staff Writer

JACKSON — The township’s largest business does not pay its fair share of taxes. That is the belief of some members of the Township Committee and the Board of Education, but not a state tax judge who ruled on the issue more than a decade ago.

Never say never.

A bill introduced last fall would — if signed into law — make Six Flags Great Adventure, Route 537, responsible for paying more money to Jackson by imposing a parking surcharge on its visitors. The bill is written so narrowly that it would only affect Great Adventure.

Kristin Siebeneicher, public relations manager for the theme park, said management considers the legislation to be unconstitutional and will sue if it is signed into law. That would set the stage for another legal contest between Jackson and Great Adventure. What a judge would not decide is whether the cost of such litigation is money well spent.

Mayor Thomas Vogel of Point Pleasant Beach, a seaside amusement community where a similar parking surcharge has been discussed, said he believes that collecting a fee from tourists to the township could have negative repercussions.

“It’s a balancing act,” Vogel said. “There’s a point of diminishing returns.”

Great Adventure paid a total of $3.3 million in property taxes last year, according to Jackson Tax Assessor Dennis Rafferty.

School board member Marvin Krakower does not think that is enough.

“Only 15 percent of their park is taxed because they won a decision in about 1990 that classifies their amusement park as moveable and therefore not subject to full taxation,” Krakower said.

Last year Krakower enlisted the support of state Sen. Robert Singer (R-Ocean) to redress what he considered to be an unfair legal decision. Singer’s bill made it out of committee, but Krakower is now seeking the support of the Senate’s majority Democrats.

If acting Gov. Richard Codey, a Democrat, were to sign the bill into law, Great Adventure could be required to collect a parking surcharge of $1.50 from its visitors in addition to the $10 parking fee it already charges. The surcharge would be placed in a fund administered by the state and released to the Jackson school district annually for the refurbishment of its buildings and upgrade of equipment.

Singer estimated that the bill could raise as much as $500,000 for the school district.

However, according to Robert Williams, a law professor at the Camden campus of Rutgers Law School, the township also risks losing what could be an expensive legal contest.

“It sounds as if [Jackson] is inviting a legal challenge that has a lot of merit,” Williams said. “I wouldn’t want to hazard a guess to the outcome of such a case.”

Williams said that prior to 1875, the Legislature was able to pass laws that singled out specific companies. However, legislation passed that year prohibited the passage of private, special or local laws — including those providing for the management and control of free public schools. Despite the prohibition of such legislation, Williams said that court cases argued since then have both supported as well as undermined it.

Even without consistent past precedent, Williams thought Great Adventure could prevail in a legal contest.

“I hope they call me to represent them,” he said.