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but, if the voice portrayed in the media is that people want lower taxes, why aren't people voting for lower taxes? are taxes lower in any town in NJ this year than they were 1 or 2 years ago?
agreed, there are no lower taxes that I see. Goat says his went down 10 bucks or so. 101.5 leads with a different story than most of the school budgets passed. Last year they were all over"School Budgets voted down"thing. So best case scenario is modest tax increases with reduced services. Bricktown voted to increase it's municipal spending by 25 percent because of reduced state aid.
Surely you don't think that people don't want lower taxes. Of course they do. But there are a many ways to get there. Just because you vote yes on a school budget doesn't not automatically signify you have no desire to lower taxes.
but school taxes are 70%+ of your tax bill. without lowering them, you won't see any relief.
agreed, there are no lower taxes that I see. Goat says his went down 10 bucks or so. 101.5 leads with a different story than most of the school budgets passed. Last year they were all over"School Budgets voted down"thing. So best case scenario is modest tax increases with reduced services. Bricktown voted to increase it's municipal spending by 25 percent because of reduced state aid.
interesting. we don't vote on municipal spending, it's shoved down our throats.
it's hilarious this year - the township board was applauding our school board for their "fiscal prudence", last year it was a war. what's different this year? the municipal budget increase is about 3xs that of the school budget.
Ours were open from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. I think there were fewer than 200 voters.
They stuck a threatening flyer in everybody's door the other night saying that if they aren't allowed to exceed the 2% to 5.65%, they might have to cut garbage collection. By morning there was another flyer stuck in the door that said "Ignore the blatant threat, we'll get our own damn garbage collection and get a better price." Exceeding the tax 2% was voted down.
Ours were open from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. I think there were fewer than 200 voters.
They stuck a threatening flyer in everybody's door the other night saying that if they aren't allowed to exceed the 2% to 5.65%, they might have to cut garbage collection. By morning there was another flyer stuck in the door that said "Ignore the blatant threat, we'll get our own damn garbage collection and get a better price." Exceeding the tax 2% was voted down.
what does garbage collection have to do with school budgets? you can't rob peter to pay paul.
i thought it was funny also that in the mailing pushing the school budget they put in the numbers of how wonderful the test scores are of the kids in our schools. as if that has anything to do with the school.
if i vote down the school budget, do you know what happens then? i feel like it still wouldnt work out to a lower budget, they would just force it on us somehow. but im not sure. i think parents and others are afraid that it would impact the school year so they mostly just support it and others dont vote against it. then you have all the people with vested interests voting for it. so you really need a good movement in order to vote them down.
if you want lower property taxes, you have to vote down the school budgets. maybe you won't win, but it's kind of comical that seemingly everyone hates their property taxes, but when it comes to reducing spending, everyone is against it.
good example would be Hoboken cutting down it's police force. for years I lived there and everyone complained that the Hoboken police did nothing. they had too many. they didn't patrol. blah blah. so a mayor gets in, and says she is cutting the police force to reduce the budget and taxes...and people revolt at city hall.
Surely you don't think that people don't want lower taxes. Of course they do. But there are a many ways to get there. Just because you vote yes on a school budget doesn't not automatically signify you have no desire to lower taxes.
well, without reducing spending, and voting against increases, i'm not sure how else you get to lower taxes. since school taxes make up anywhere from 30-50% of an individual's tax burden, i'd be interested in hearing what other ways you can lower your taxes while at the same time increasing spending in schools?
Well, taxes in my town haven't really gone up in 2 years. To me that, is a major accomplishment.
I can't speak for every town as property taxes are a local issue, but I based my decision to support the budget on the actions of my local school in terms of savings and sharing services. I think they have done an admirable job. I imagine drawing a line in the sand would be viewed as a victory for most.
I could also argue that it is impossible under the current union contracts for the schools to effect real cost savings. This was mentioned in another thread, but even poor liberal school districts point to the influence of the teachers union on collective bargaining and the restrictions on pension, healthcare, salary and tenure that continues to bind their hands. Essentially our towns/schools can't effect change on the largest contributors to their expenses.
oh i agree 100%. but i just don't think people's complaints match up necessarily with their actions.
tahiti not every town spends that much of a proportion on the schools. Not sure where you live but the county usually gets a huge chunk of property taxes (sure they run some county schools at the high school level but few kids from my town go & our town pays a "tuition" for each kid anyway).
In my old Union County town- the COUNTY portion which WE DID NOT get to vote on was 50% of my tax bill. Of the remaining 50% I was taxed, only about a half went towards the school.
So that means only a third to a quarter of what I spend per year on property taxes actually went to the school (in my case total tax approx $7K so that makes it $2500 to schools). The other $1000 was town services, police, library, etc. with the county getting a whopping $3500.
Honestly- property taxes will really only decrease in Union County when the county lowers spending levels significantly (& perhaps this is the case in other counties).
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