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Old 08-16-2012, 01:47 PM
 
Location: New Jersey
12,755 posts, read 9,613,410 times
Reputation: 13164

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Quote:
Originally Posted by NJGOAT View Post
You are wrong on that point when it comes to property taxes. Outside of the Abbot decisions forcing the state to allocate a large share of state educational dollars to a handful of districts instead of distributing it equally, anything related to your property taxes is simply an action of your local and county government and school board. People want to blame the state government for property taxes when in reality you don't need to look any further then your own town government and school board. Not one red cent of your property taxes goes to or is spent by anyone but those groups. Ironcially enough for all the complaining about property taxes, local elections are the least participated in of all. In most towns less then 5% of eligible voters show up to elect the mayor/council and school boards.
You're right. I live in West Windsor and almost my entire tax bill goes to the schools.

Voting in local elections?
Yes, I've done that, but it doesn't really matter.

Having a referendum on whether to expand the school budget?
It was voted down, but the increase went in anyway.

I really wish someone else would run for mayor...ugh.
He's been in way too long.
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Old 08-16-2012, 01:49 PM
 
146 posts, read 624,929 times
Reputation: 93
Quote:
Originally Posted by mike0421 View Post
I would have given this post more attribution two years ago.

Since then, I've moved to suburban St. Louis Missouri, into a top 50 national school district, the roads are plowed when it snows, the trash is collected, and the taxes in this town are about 60% less than Essex or Bergen County, which would be two comparables.

New Jersey municipalities have an insatiable appetite for their resident's incomes. It will never change unless people vote with their feet.
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Old 08-16-2012, 01:54 PM
 
146 posts, read 624,929 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Docendo discimus View Post
In addition to the NJ Senior Tax Freeze program and the Homestead Rebate for people under 65, don't forget the possibility of a property tax appeal. Your house might be over assessed and you can appeal the assessment to lower it, thereby lowering your property taxes. But really, this is just a temporary solution because the property tax rate is always going to inch up and up and up, so in a few years, you'll be back to paying the same amount of taxes which will continue to rise.

As far as the issue of "I can't sell my home"...hmm. Not sure. I know the market generally sucks, but a house that is priced right will eventually sell, right? But then again, I've read that the trend now is against buying larger homes or McMansions (and if you're talking about $20,000-$40,000 property taxes, I'm assuming you own a large home or a McMansion), not just because of the initial price tag of a large house, but because of a general paradigm shift toward smaller, leaner & meaner houses that are more energy efficient and 'green'. People don't want to spend $1,000 a month each winter just to heat the place. You might have to lower your asking price, which of course, I understand nobody wants to do. However, you also have to take into account what you paid for that house 30 years ago. Probably a LOT less even than a lowball asking price today. Regardless, I feel for your position. People should not be taxed out of homes they've already paid off. Thirty years ago, I don't think anyone really could have predicted $20,000 and $40,000 a year property taxes.

I know that NJ's higher property taxes means that we get to enjoy a lot of services, a first rate school system, etc. etc. However, I don't think we can just throw up our hands and say "OH WELL" about the property taxes. There's no denying that all the corruption, bureaucracy and fiscal waste in this state make the taxes worse than what they should be.
Thanks for your post...it is a larger (but no McMansion) historical home, and there's not a huge market right now. I don't think George Washington would ever imagine that these houses would cost so much in property taxes as he made his way to some battlefields!

Size is a deterrent yes, heating bills and..property taxes..one big circle.

Still I don't want to focus on my specific examples, I think this is a big problem for many - but most are inclined to stay silent and just accept it.

Last edited by jubileefd; 08-16-2012 at 02:11 PM..
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Old 08-16-2012, 02:04 PM
 
5,616 posts, read 15,488,763 times
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The bottom line is the seniors did not save enough and the baby boomers are in even worse shape so even if they inherit their father's home they will still have frozen property tax because their broke alot of them too. So what will happen, come on, they will go after us for more taxes to pick up the loss of money!! They will go after the middle class again!!!!
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Old 08-16-2012, 02:05 PM
 
Location: Elsewhere
88,253 posts, read 84,190,273 times
Reputation: 114579
Quote:
Originally Posted by imoapie View Post
Listen, people need to look at themselves instead of trying to blame others. If you cannot afford the taxes move somewhere where you can. I'm sick of people pointing fingers. It is called saving and investing. You know the things we preach to the youth of today.
You don't get it. The people I'm thinking of DID save and invest. An old woman in her eighties with a weak heart who can barely find the breath to speak and who finds that the home she and her husband paid $20K for and has lived in for sixty years has taxes that have suddenly blossomed to $12K a year isn't going to pack up, sell her home and move to North Carolina where she doesn't know a soul just because you personally think her dead husband should have been wealthier. He was a successful insurance broker, left behind a nice house, and some money, but he's been dead for a dozen years and was already in his eighties and retired for years when he died. She isn't pointing fingers at anyone. She is trying to SURVIVE and spend her last years in our own home. She took advantage of the tax break, and she deserved it. In a few years she'll be dead and you can jump up and down for joy about it.

There's no way in hell anyone of that era could EVER have anticipated that real estate prices and taxes in their little quiet town in New Jersey would skyrocket the way they did in the last decade.
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Old 08-16-2012, 02:08 PM
 
146 posts, read 624,929 times
Reputation: 93
Quote:
Originally Posted by stevemorse View Post
The bottom line is the seniors did not save enough and the baby boomers are in even worse shape so even if they inherit their father's home they will still have frozen property tax because their broke alot of them too. So what will happen, come on, they will go after us for more taxes to pick up the loss of money!! They will go after the middle class again!!!!
Well another way to look at this is that the seniors did save and paid off their homes slowly yet surely while the younger generations put zero down on houses they couldn't afford causing a housing market bust, all while NJ pol's and teachers collected bloated pensions and benefits at residents' expense. For such excellent schools, the resulting standards of our publicly educated is still in dire shape (on the whole and when compared to other developed nations), so it is not adding up.
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Old 08-16-2012, 02:11 PM
 
Location: Elsewhere
88,253 posts, read 84,190,273 times
Reputation: 114579
Quote:
Originally Posted by stevemorse View Post
The bottom line is the seniors did not save enough and the baby boomers are in even worse shape so even if they inherit their father's home they will still have frozen property tax because their broke alot of them too. So what will happen, come on, they will go after us for more taxes to pick up the loss of money!! They will go after the middle class again!!!!
That's bull. Again, NO ONE EVER ANTICIPATED that prices and taxes would go the way they did. There was no possible way to save for this mess.
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Old 08-16-2012, 02:14 PM
 
Location: Elsewhere
88,253 posts, read 84,190,273 times
Reputation: 114579
Quote:
Originally Posted by jubileefd View Post
Well another way to look at this is that the seniors did save and paid off their homes slowly yet surely while the younger generations put zero down on houses they couldn't afford causing a housing market bust, all while NJ pol's and teachers collected bloated pensions and benefits at residents' expense. For such excellent schools, the resulting standards of our publicly educated is still in dire shape (on the whole and when compared to other developed nations), so it is not adding up.
My own mother, now 83, paid off my parents' mortgage in 13 years (she was a SAHM, but handled the bills) because she grew up during the Depression and didn't want there to be a chance they'd lose their house if my father couldn't work. My father received a veteran's pension because of his disability, but he was an electrical engineer, also. They likely would have been fine if he was laid off, but she grew up in poverty and carried that fear. Plus, they had seven kids, which probably figured into the anxiety.
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Old 08-16-2012, 02:19 PM
 
Location: NJ
17,574 posts, read 46,041,691 times
Reputation: 16272
Even if the market isn't what it was a few years back I would think those houses that were bought and paid for a long time ago would be used to fund things now. I guess I just always thought this way. Eventually you need to downsize and live much cheaper than you do when you are working.
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Old 08-16-2012, 02:23 PM
 
2,160 posts, read 4,950,255 times
Reputation: 5527
Quote:
Originally Posted by jubileefd View Post
Thanks for your post...it is a larger (but no McMansion) historical home, and there's not a huge market right now. I don't think George Washington would ever imagine that these houses would cost so much in property taxes as he made his way to some battlefields!

Size is a deterrent yes, heating bills and..property taxes..one big circle.

Still I don't want to focus on my specific examples, I think this is a big problem for many - but most are inclined to stay silent and just accept it.
Yeah, I know. It's amazing what happened to real estate prices and property taxes just in the last generation. It makes me scared about what will happen 30 years from NOW. At the rate we're going, am I gonna be looking at $200,000 property taxes with the next generation telling ME that I didn't save and invest wisely enough? You just don't know what will happen. There are some things you just can't control. I'm on your side.
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