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The situation is really ridiculous. I am trying to buy a house and can afford upto $600k but property taxes are around $14k which has been increasing at a 2-3% rate every year. So, If i intend staying 20 years until my kid graduates college, I am looking at around $300k just in property taxes cumulatively. This is absolutely insane!!! I am not from America. In other countries, people pay for their own schooling and other things. I think the whole community driven property tax model to fund local schools is flawed. Let people determine where they want to send their kids to and pay according to their budget instead of socializing the whole thing which is leading to added costs and non-sustainability.
Are you saying that there shouldn't be any public education? And what countries are those where people "people pay for their own schooling and other things." and presumably have poor or nor public education? Maybe Zimbabwe or Uganda or some other third world country...
if the NJ senate would let him implement his ideas, confirm his nominations, and such, things would be a lot better. Can't blame someone for getting nothing done when the people that have to approve the changes want nothing to do with him
Bipartisan accomplishments are rare events these past 7+ years. NJ has such a huge pile of debt hanging over its head. The voters of NJ ruined the state. They made bad decisions that continued to increase debt. Every time I go to grocery store, I look at the shoppers and think, "you did this." Oh well, it is at least fun listening to them complain about the high taxes that they routinely voted for.
Are you saying that there shouldn't be any public education? And what countries are those where people "people pay for their own schooling and other things." and presumably have poor or nor public education? Maybe Zimbabwe or Uganda or some other third world country...
I am going to ignore your third world reference for a minute since it does not add value to the discussion. The fact of is that the model of funding public education primarily through property taxes has resulted in this mess where the taxes have outpaced job growth and raises. This is not a sustainable model. I am not saying no to public education but am rather trying to give people the choice and what they pay will depend on the choice they exercise - whether public or private. You can learn from other countries and the good things they are doing rather than just having a very narrow world view.
The situation is really ridiculous. I am trying to buy a house and can afford upto $600k but property taxes are around $14k which has been increasing at a 2-3% rate every year. So, If i intend staying 20 years until my kid graduates college, I am looking at around $300k just in property taxes cumulatively. This is absolutely insane!!! I am not from America. In other countries, people pay for their own schooling and other things. I think the whole community driven property tax model to fund local schools is flawed. Let people determine where they want to send their kids to and pay according to their budget instead of socializing the whole thing which is leading to added costs and non-sustainability.
You obviously do not understand much about New Jersey and or the state/local tax structure.
Others have already chimed in but here is one take away point; many NJ local areas have nil to none commercial tax base. Thus revenue has to come from somewhere and that usually means land/property taxes. Also as pointed out NJ local areas do not have income taxes (unlike NYC which does), so again revenue has to come from somewhere.
Could things be tightened up? Sure. There is no need for every small town, village, hamlet, etc.. to have their own school boards, law enforcement, etc... Many local areas could join together and merge overlapping services. But that would deprive a whole lot of politicians and civil servants of jobs; thus won't happen.
1) property taxes are high in NJ. Close to the highest in the nation;
2) the voters of NJ voted for high taxes year over year over year;
3) this will never change. High property taxes and NJ are bound for life. The voters in NJ love their high property taxes.
Twice in this thread, you have stated that NJ voters vote for high taxes every year. I have never voted on my town's tax rate, so I am wondering what you mean.
This is one of the reasons I got the hell outta there. I plan to retire in a few years and real estate prices in my Bergen County town were already falling due to aggressively crappy local governance. And my taxes weren't all that high for Bergen County -- $8000 on a $400K house. But they're going nowhere but up, and not spent on useful things like roads and infrastructure. I was afraid if I didn't sell now I'd never be able to. Now I am in NC in a 1900 square foot center hall colonial, fully updated, fully paid for, no mortgage -- and walked away with a nice chunk of change. Oh, and my taxes are $3600/year, which is actually high for here.
You obviously do not understand much about New Jersey and or the state/local tax structure.
Others have already chimed in but here is one take away point; many NJ local areas have nil to none commercial tax base. Thus revenue has to come from somewhere and that usually means land/property taxes. Also as pointed out NJ local areas do not have income taxes (unlike NYC which does), so again revenue has to come from somewhere.
Could things be tightened up? Sure. There is no need for every small town, village, hamlet, etc.. to have their own school boards, law enforcement, etc... Many local areas could join together and merge overlapping services. But that would deprive a whole lot of politicians and civil servants of jobs; thus won't happen.
Contrary to what you are saying, I do understand what the local tax structure is. What I am proposing is this. Consolidate public education across a number of closely grouped cities instead of the current model where each county has a number of schools each with its own overhead and aministratikn. This will result in a surge in student to teacher ratio but you get what you pay for. Everybody would get a lower tax Bill and people who can afford to can use those savings to offset the cost of private education if they desire a better quality of education. In this way people have the choice of spending what they want and can stay in their homes longer even after their kids graduate rather than be tied to a fixed cost base.
To reduce property taxes you really need to consolidate schools and design a different payment system. I happen to think we should fund schools through the income tax with every school getting x amount per student.
I also support vouchers (with strict controls) that would allow students of failing districts to go to other schools that meet certain criteria.
To reduce property taxes you really need to consolidate schools and design a different payment system. I happen to think we should fund schools through the income tax with every school getting x amount per student.
I also support vouchers (with strict controls) that would allow students of failing districts to go to other schools that meet certain criteria.
Consolidate schools,are you kidding there are poor people in their town. We don't need any poor kids in our schools. That's why NJ has 600+ school districts.
NJ 21 counties. 600+ school districts. avg. 9M population
NC 100 counties, 100 school districts. avg. 9M population
Do the math. that's where your tax money is wasted. Too many administrators.
Would NJ schools be better with only 21 districts? Better than NC
Would taxes be lower? Probably by quite a bit.
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That's why NJ has 600+ school districts.
