Dennis Shulman for U.S. Congress: Sensible Leadership for New Jersey’s 5th District

September 25th, 2008

BY HERB JACKSON

A new TV ad charges Rep. Scott Garrett is “just another corrupt politician” because he gets “a huge property tax break” on land treated as a farm in Sussex County because “his brother sells $700 worth of shrubs.”

The opening salvo by Democratic candidate Dennis Shulman also accuses Garrett of violating disclosure laws by not including the farm on his personal financial statement.

“He’s not a farmer,” the ad says, while a fake photo of Garrett in a straw hat shows on the screen. “Just another corrupt politician.”

Garrett’s campaign says he’s done nothing wrong taking advantage of the state’s farmland assessment program, which is designed to keep open space from being sold to developers by offering significantly lower tax rates.

But a similar attack of being a fake farmer cost Ellen Karcher, a Democratic state senator from Monmouth County, her seat in 2007.

Then-Gov. Jim Florio also challenged Republican Christie Whitman’s use of farmland assessments on land she owned in Somerset County in their 1993 campaign. Whitman invited reporters to the farm for a tour to show that livestock were being raised.

Shulman, a blind rabbi and psychologist from Demarest, is hoping the issue can turn voters against Garrett, who is seeking his fourth term representing what has been a reliably Republican district covering all of Warren and Sussex counties and parts of Passaic and Bergen.

Garett’s land in question is 9.88 acres in Wantage Township that was originally owned by his father, now deceased.

Public records show the land was assessed at $6,100 in 2007. The Department of Community Affairs web site lists Wantage’s tax rate as $1.86 per $100 of assessment, which means the tax bill would be $113. Shulman’s ad says the tax bill would be as high as $41,000 if the land were valued at the highest market rates in the county.

Garrett and his wife Mary Ellen also own one acre of land adjacent to the property where their home sits. That acre and the house were assessed at $308,200, according to public records. At the 2007 tax rate, the tax bill would have been $5,733.

Garrett does not list the property on the financial disclosure form filed with the House of Representatives.

His campaign manager, Amanda Gasperino, said Garrett’s brother works the farm and reports the income derived from selling Christmas trees on his personal taxes. The congressman receives no revenue from the land or his brother, she said.

But Shulman’s campaign manager, Jeffrey Hauser, said the land should still be disclosed.

“It’s an income-bearing asset owned wholly by Mary Ellen and Scott Garrett,” Hauser said. “The point of the disclosure law is that it let’s us know how wealthy and what interests individually a member of Congress has. This is overwhelmingly the largest asset Scott Garrett has and he has hidden it.”

The disclosure form specifically does not require members to list their homes as assets, but Hauser said Garrett cannot claim the farm is his home.

“It’s adjacent, but it’s not his home. It’s a separate asset. He could sell one and keep another,” Hauser said.

A call to the House ethics committee, which advises members of disclosure forms, was not returned.

Hauser also questioned Garrett’s claim of selling Christmas trees, and provided a copy of the farmland assessment application Garrett filed in July. On it, the line for Christmas trees is blank, but a line for “trees & shrubs (nursery)” is filled in.

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