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Part of the issue I see with regards to this specific issue is that a more wealthy town will be afraid that a less wealthy town will end up eating up an unfair share of the tax money. Given things like the Abbot ruling with the schools, I'd say it's a fair worry.
This mentality causes systemic problems in my home state of Connecticut. Rich towns have a lower mill rate and thus lower property & auto tax burden. Middle class towns never catch a break because people flee higher taxes to low tax states or move into high income towns whenever cheap property presents itself. Since the towns handle so much at the local level there is no breathing room to cut taxes.
I was at a meeting shortly after Murph was elected. Just about everyone there was a state employee or state retiree. They were all ecstatic - "Our pensions and healthcare are now safe".
and why shouldn't they want it to be safe. Listen they negotiated and up until Whitman became govenor it was my understanding that their pension funds were well funded. After that all the Govenors either started raiding the pension money or stopped funding it.
I don't blame them, those people WORKED, they did not steal the money. now people want them to say "oh well" yeah it's ok.
How would you like it if you had a savings account and the bank raided it and then said to you "oh well, we don't want to put the money back in so we think you should accept less".
oh hell to the naw.
New Jersey’s pension funds were flush at the turn of the 21st century. But since 1996, governors from both parties have been underfunding the system, making payments far below what actuaries recommend.
The state skipped payments altogether from 2001 to 2004, when the annual required contribution called for $2.8 billion. And while the state was taking a pension holiday, it increased benefits for employees.
The Legislature adopted and Christie signed into law a pension reform package to gradually increase the state’s pension contribution over seven years until it reached the full annual required contribution.
Employees had to make concessions too: the law raised the retirement age, suspended cost-of-living increases for retirees, and required workers to contribute more toward their pensions and health benefits.
This mentality causes systemic problems in my home state of Connecticut. Rich towns have a lower mill rate and thus lower property & auto tax burden. Middle class towns never catch a break because people flee higher taxes to low tax states or move into high income towns whenever cheap property presents itself. Since the towns handle so much at the local level there is no breathing room to cut taxes.
For us, the town only gets 17% of our property taxes. The county/state take the rest. Given how little we get from the county and state in return, I'm not willing to let the county take control of our schools and police. No way, no how. The systemic problems aren't due to the mentality of towns who want to protect and have local control of their services. The problems occur when governing bodies are too far removed from the individual towns for the people to have enough oversight and hold their legislators accountable for their choices.
For us, the town only gets 17% of our property taxes. The county/state take the rest. Given how little we get from the county and state in return, I'm not willing to let the county take control of our schools and police. No way, no how. The systemic problems aren't due to the mentality of towns who want to protect and have local control of their services. The problems occur when governing bodies are too far removed from the individual towns for the people to have enough oversight and hold their legislators accountable for their choices.
Plus 1. There is a reason why New Jersey is consistently ranked in the the top 5 states for public education.
and why shouldn't they want it to be safe. Listen they negotiated and up until Whitman became govenor it was my understanding that their pension funds were well funded. After that all the Govenors either started raiding the pension money or stopped funding it.
I don't blame them, those people WORKED, they did not steal the money. now people want them to say "oh well" yeah it's ok.
How would you like it if you had a savings account and the bank raided it and then said to you "oh well, we don't want to put the money back in so we think you should accept less".
oh hell to the naw.
New Jersey’s pension funds were flush at the turn of the 21st century. But since 1996, governors from both parties have been underfunding the system, making payments far below what actuaries recommend.
The state skipped payments altogether from 2001 to 2004, when the annual required contribution called for $2.8 billion. And while the state was taking a pension holiday, it increased benefits for employees.
The Legislature adopted and Christie signed into law a pension reform package to gradually increase the state’s pension contribution over seven years until it reached the full annual required contribution.
Employees had to make concessions too: the law raised the retirement age, suspended cost-of-living increases for retirees, and required workers to contribute more toward their pensions and health benefits.
I agree with you that public sector workers should be getting their pension payments since they paid into it. Whenever we skip partial payments, we add future debt.
However, we have to recognize that the current pension and health benefits system is unsustainable. The argument has traditionally been that the appeal of this public sector jobs is superior benefits to the private sector. But the reality is, moving forward, we can't afford to be as generous. Personally, I think law enforcement and firefighters deserve more generous benefits not because they are superior as human beings to others, but because their jobs are very different. I believe the definite benefits system has to be replaced with some sort of other system, my preference is a cash/hybrid system as proposed by Governor Christie's pension & health benefits review commission.
But let's keep in mind there are three ways to meet our obligations. One is through higher taxes. The second is through spending cuts. The third is through a broader tax base. I oppose higher taxes because it makes our state more expensive and therefore, discourages economic growth and thus reduces tax revenue. That leaves us with spending restraint and a broader tax base, which is accomplished through reducing taxes and regulations to promote economic growth.
Governors McGreevey and Corzine showed no interest in trying to solve any problems. Governor Christie started to work towards pension & health benefits reform, but then decided to focus on running for President. Governor-elect Murphy has showed no serious desire to fix the failed policies of the past on this issue.
We are thinking to move closer to the grand kids in Montclair, New Jersey. This is telling me that it may be a better idea to buy in Pennsylvania instead. Any thoughts?
For us, the town only gets 17% of our property taxes. The county/state take the rest. Given how little we get from the county and state in return, I'm not willing to let the county take control of our schools and police. No way, no how. The systemic problems aren't due to the mentality of towns who want to protect and have local control of their services. The problems occur when governing bodies are too far removed from the individual towns for the people to have enough oversight and hold their legislators accountable for their choices.
Usually, the local schools gets 55%-65%, the town gets 15%-25% and the county get the rest. The county number is always less than the town number. There is no line item for the state on my property tax bill.
We are thinking to move closer to the grand kids in Montclair, New Jersey. This is telling me that it may be a better idea to buy in Pennsylvania instead. Any thoughts?
We stayed in NJ because of the kids. Otherwise we'ed be gone.
We are thinking to move closer to the grand kids in Montclair, New Jersey. This is telling me that it may be a better idea to buy in Pennsylvania instead. Any thoughts?
How much do you love the Grand kids?
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