Verizon stopped paying local N.J. taxes. Now, a powerful legislator wants to sock it to the company.

South Jersey Assemblyman John J. Burzichelli (D., Paulsboro) had just finished reading an Inquirer article on Hopewell Borough’s epic tax fight with Verizon Communications in late February when he ran into the borough’s mayor, Paul Anzano, in Washington.

“What can I do to help?” Burzichelli asked.

On Thursday, Burzichelli came through as he proposed legislation in Trenton that would force Verizon to pay local taxes on telephone poles, lines, land, and other equipment that the telecom giant has refused to fork over in an increasing number of New Jersey municipalities, starving them of tens of millions of dollars a year in tax revenue.

“People are starting to realize that they’re not alone with this,” Burzichelli, chair of the Assembly’s powerful Appropriations Committee, said Thursday. He said the bill’s prospects to pass are “very good.”

The proposed legislation not only forces Verizon, one of New Jersey’s biggest corporations, and other legacy phone companies to pay the business personal property tax, but they must pay it retroactively to 2009.

Read more: https://www.philly.com/business/verizon-phone-taxes-new-jersey-towns-20190524.html