Asbury Park Press - "Pennacchio: Block "gentlemen farmers" from property tax break"

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Asbury Park Press - "Pennacchio: Block "gentlemen farmers" from property tax break"

U.S. Senate candidate Joseph Pennacchio Monday criticized Republican opponent Dick Zimmer for making use of a property tax break by selling hay from his Hunterdon County home.

Pennacchio pledged to write new laws in the state Senate banning "gentlemen farmers" from the Jersey landscape.

"Here is a guy who is asking to represent the people of New Jersey, yet he takes advantage of them to have them subsidize his estate. That's unfair, ridiculous and selfish," said Pennacchio, a Republican state senator from Morris County, at a Statehouse news conference.

Zimmer, a Washington lobbyist who maintains homes in the capital and in Delaware Township, receives a tax break on most of his 24.5-acre Hunterdon County property under a 1964 state law intended to help struggling farmers and preserve farms and open space.

Zimmer's home is on one acre, assessed at $353,900, on which he paid $7,212 in property taxes last year. His other 23.55 acres are assessed at $8,300, and on that property he paid $169 in taxes in 2007.

Zimmer's spokesman did not respond to a phone call.

The state legislation promised by Pennacchio would mandate anyone getting the tax break live in New Jersey and increase the minimum amount of money gained from the land — needed to become eligible for the break — from $500 a year to $1,250.

"Two percent of your gross income must be derived from farm activities and products. This helps small farmers but disallows gentlemen farmers from abusing this system," Pennacchio said.

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