Shop Local, Reduce Your Taxes

How’d you like to get a rebate on your property taxes just for shopping at stores and eating at restaurants?

Sounds like a no-brainer, right?

That’s the idea behind Fincredit Inc.’s brand new property tax card program. Only one other town in New Jersey has (so far) jumped on board, but plenty are talking about it, and you can add Moorestown to the list.

Here’s how it would work in a nutshell:

The township issues special “Shop Your Town” cards to residents, while at the same time recruiting Moorestown businesses to participate in the program. If the business agrees to participate, Fincredit supplies the merchant with a dedicated “Shop Your Town” card reader.

When a Moorestown resident patronizes a participating business, they pay as they normally would, while also having the cashier swipe their “Shop Your Town” card. A percentage of the sale—to be determined by the business—is paid against the resident’s quarterly property tax bill in the form of a rebate.

For example, let’s say you go out to dinner on Main Street. Your bill comes to an even $100. The restaurant participates in the property tax card program with a 10 percent rebate. When the restaurant swipes your “Shop Your Town” card, a $10 rebate—minus program fees paid to Fincredit—is created. Every quarter, all those rebates are added up and knocked off your property tax bill.

The program would also work for renters, except instead of a tax rebate, they’d get a quarterly wire transfer, from which a small transfer/handling fee would be deducted.

Moorestown township manager Scott Carew said he first heard about the program at the New Jersey League of Municipalities Conference in Atlantic City last month, where Fincredit managing director Carmine DeFalco was bending the ear of many an interested municipality.

“The idea, if it works, is a tremendous idea,” said Carew. “It’s intriguing, because it’s meant to incent people to shop local.”

Carew said if you consider all the businesses in Moorestown, adding in the dozens of shops at the Moorestown Mall, “you could be talking about hundreds of dollars (in rebates) for households at no cost to the township.”

The finer points
That’s one of the program’s other selling points. The up-front costs of implementing the program are solely on Fincredit, and to a lesser degree the merchants, who make a $150 one-time payment for the card readers and $10 per month thereafter to rent them. Fincredit takes care of all the legwork, all the customer service, DeFalco said.

“For $120 a year, (the businesses are) getting a lot of exposure,” he said. “They’re getting a captive audience … They’re getting into a township program, so they don’t feel like they’re alone in the marketing.”

The whole idea of the program, DeFalco said, is “We’re trying to shift, in part, the way people shop so it’s more in-town.”

The thinking being: If you have a choice between buying something in Moorestown versus buying it in, say, Mount Laurel, you’ll get it here because you know it’ll reduce your property taxes.

Both Jake DerHagopian, chair of economic development advisory committee, and Mark Morgan, president of the Moorestown Business Association (MBA), said they were very interested in the program, but need to find out more.

Morgan said he plans to bring the idea to MBA members at their next monthly meeting to gauge interest

“Conceptually, we’re excited by the possibilities that could be created,” said DerHagopian. “I think the merchants would look at this as a form of marketing.”

DeFalco also said residents would be able to monitor their rebates online, though Fincredit’s website is at the moment still under construction.

‘Happy citizens are our bottom line’
Of course, this is all speculative. While Moorestown officials are undeniably intrigued by the idea, they’re understandably taking a wait-and-see approach to what is literally a brand new concept. The only New Jersey municipality to sign up for the program to date is Marlboro.

DeFalco said he’s working in conjunction with Marlboro officials on implementation, with a target start-up date of the first quarter of 2012. He hopes to have between 150 to 200 merchants participating right out of the gate.

A call to the Marlboro township administrator was not immediately returned.

In the meantime, DeFalco said he has at least 50 more towns interested in the program.

Carew plans to bring DeFalco to a Moorestown council meeting in January to pitch the program to members of council.

Mayor John Button said the idea was “certainly intriguing,” but added it’s also a “very new and unproven concept.”

“I’m a believer in there’s no proof like having seen the work done,” said Carew. “I want to make sure the mechanics of it can work. But the idea of being able to provide tax relief to our residents, it’s a win-win.”

He added, only semi-jokingly, “Happy citizens are our bottom line.”