Bid Farewell to Your Property Tax Rebate
Posted May 22, 2009

It looks like it's official. You can wave goodbye to your property tax rebate. On Tuesday, New Jersey State Treasurer David Rousseau announced the elimination of property tax rebates for all but senior citizens and the disabled due to an ailing economy and lost tax revenues.

Speaking before the Assembly Budget Committee, Rousseau stated, "We face the most daunting challenge of any budget in state history."  Unfortunately, this is starting to sound like a broken record.

This tax "un"-relief comes as New Jersey stands poised to receive billions in federal stimulus money over the next three years, including, as the Star Ledger reports, "about $7 billion in tax relief and about $10 billion for health care, transportation, affordable housing, energy efficiency, and other areas." In fact, according to the New Jersey Recovery and Reinvestment Plan website, "nearly 42 percent of the money coming to the state over the next three years will come in the form of tax breaks."

Maybe so, but we think eliminating property tax rebates in the state with the highest property taxes in the nation is hardly a good way to kick off these "tax breaks."

And it gets worse.

According to the Ledger, Governor Corzine plans not only to eliminate the tax rebates but also to hike taxes on those earning $400,000 to $500,000 (from 6.37 percent to 8 percent) and on those earning $1 million or more (from 10.25 percent to 10.75 percent). Granted, we recognize that most New Jerseyans do not fall into either of these categories. Yet wealth earners are often the very ones who create wealth for others in the form of jobs and investments into the economy. By continuing to tax the supposed "rich" (although this term is very subjective given New Jersey's astronomical cost of living), Corzine will only serve to continue to drive them - and their dollars - out of New Jersey. Indeed, an article in Monday's Wall Street Journal noted regarding our state's half millionaire tax, "[T]here were 4,000 missing half-millionaires in New Jersey after that tax took effect."

Notably, the elimination of the property tax rebates - which, as the Ledger notes, last year numbered more than 1.3 million checks averaging over $1,000 for households and tenants making less than $150,000 - is being described as a one-time deal. This is particularly ironic given that when the rebates were instituted several years ago, they were hailed as long-term relief.

A few years is certainly a very creative definition of "long-term", to say the least.

Nevertheless, Rousseau stated, "Unfortunately, due to the severe revenue decline, we're going to have to, for this year, suspend" a bulk of the rebates. Incredibly, he still managed to claim the budget continues to demonstrate "the values we share."

If these "values" include hiking property taxes, we'd love to know who among New Jersey's 8.6 million residents shares them.

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