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Like every other politician, there is a spin put on everything they say. Two years ago all you heard is how there was going to be a hard cap of 2% put on our property taxes. Total B.S. sounds great, but will never happen. We are basically lied to to make us happy until we get our next property tax bill in the mail. Some towns have seen their property assessments drop a 100K, but your taxes go up anyway. They play the lets raise the tax rate and get MORE MONEYGAME. No one including our Governor wants to make the decisions. Unless they take a page from the Wisconsin Governor and take on the unions and stop these crazy public salaries and huge pensions, nothing will ever change. Taxpayers in this state have been taking a pounding for years now and NO ONE wants to address what the problem is and take a stand in resolving these problems.
Some towns have seen their property assessments drop a 100K, but your taxes go up anyway. They play the lets raise the tax rate and get MORE MONEYGAME.
Just as a note, it's kind of logical that the tax rate would have to go up in that sort of situation if the people of the town want to retain their current levels of service, since otherwise the town will have just lost 25%+ of their property tax income. Of course, the problem comes when they don't drop the tax rate when things rebound.
The Mayor in my town and her pigs all just gave themselves pay increases , she makes 180k , the Police Chief makes 150k there's barely any crime here , the town clerk and treasurer make 120k.... outrageous....and this is a republican run town. The Republican assemblymen down the street got arrested for fraud in state contracts and small business. He lives in a 1.6 million $$ house in a neighborhood where most homes go for 500k....
Municipalities were not part of the deal. they can go above the 2.5% cap.
Just like the Dems claim under Corzine to end double dipping, this cap was written by your legislators in legal language that allows the public to interpret it in simplistic terms designed to capture political gain and meet the legal definition of 'not lying'. This style legislation fits the model for all 'feel good' laws that NJians eat up like 'Power Bait" only to end up being eviscerated and eaten.
In a way though, this provides a diagnostic tool for voters as it tells them that something is probably fishy in their municipality and bears investigating. Can you imagine if more municipalities had their accounts scrutinized. We read about heavenly pensions that have bankrupted towns. If it is happening somewhere it might be in your town.....and it requires that you take responsibility to do your civic duty, not rely on your elected representatives.
In CC's defense, a 'tool box' was being created to give towns the 'tools' to help meet the 2.5% cap. I have no idea of the status of that effort.
The tax rate varries enourmously from town to town and their addiction to taxpayer money is definitely provincial. tough to put a ravenous shark on a diet.
Look into the legislation to see the complexity, instead of acting like a starving fish and getting hooked on the 'headline'. Investigate to see where the problem lies.
Like every other politician, there is a spin put on everything they say. Two years ago all you heard is how there was going to be a hard cap of 2% put on our property taxes. Total B.S. sounds great, but will never happen. We are basically lied to to make us happy until we get our next property tax bill in the mail. Some towns have seen their property assessments drop a 100K, but your taxes go up anyway. They play the lets raise the tax rate and get MORE MONEYGAME. No one including our Governor wants to make the decisions. Unless they take a page from the Wisconsin Governor and take on the unions and stop these crazy public salaries and huge pensions, nothing will ever change. Taxpayers in this state have been taking a pounding for years now and NO ONE wants to address what the problem is and take a stand in resolving these problems.
I agree totally. When Chris Christie own appointed LT Governor is a double dipper what does that say for the rest of us? She collect a salary from the state and is "retired" from another job in the state which she collects a pension for. Is this fair? Who is for this? I will tell you who. The politicians that play these sleazy games and then tell you they are for reform when in fact they are just lining their pockets with cash.
We had to vote on it in my township. The town sent a flyer around saying that they wanted to increase the taxes by 5.65% but that we had to vote on it because we'd be exceeding the 2% cap. They said that if we voted down the increase they wanted, we would lose our township garbage collection and have to pay for it via our condo association. By the next morning there was another flyer in the door screaming that the town was blatantly threatening us and that they should cut admin costs and not garbage collection. Sure enough, the increase was voted down, and our condo association fees went up $15 to pay for the garbage collection contract that we now have to get for ourselves. In retrospect, it would have been better to keep the garbage collection under the township as part of taxes, since that is deductible and condo fees are not.
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