"The Check's in the Mail"
Posted September 24, 2007

“The Check’s in the Mail.” That’s what New Jersey property tax payers heard last week as the state mailed out the second and final wave of Homestead Rebate checks that will reach more than two million households.

When the legislature passed the fiscal year 2008 budget in June, Governor Corzine and the legislative leadership touted what they claimed to be significant property tax relief included in the bill.

Since property tax levels consistently remain one of the highest concerns of New Jersey families, relief should be cause for joy.

So why aren’t New Jersey homeowners happier?

Perhaps because, as James Hughes and Joseph Seneca report, according to the non-partisan Tax Foundation’s analysis of the Census Bureau’s latest American Community Survey (ACS), New Jersey’s property tax rates remain the steepest in the nation.

New Jersey’s median property tax amount is $5,773, leading second-place New Hampshire ($4,136) by almost 40%, besting third-place Connecticut ($4,049) by almost 43%, beating fourth-place New York ($3,301) by almost 75%, and crushing fifth-place Massachusetts ($3,195) by nearly 81%.

Hughes and Seneca also write that seven of the top ten property tax-paying high-population counties (65,000 residents or more) nationally are located in the Garden State, with Hunterdon County ($7,999) coming in first, Somerset County ($7,318) standing in fourth, Bergen County ($7,237) taking fifth, Essex County ($7,148) coming in sixth, Morris County ($6,852) ranking eighth, Union County ($6,703) placing ninth, and Passaic County ($6,663) rounding out the top ten.

Unfortunately, these are not wins to be proud of.

But what of the much-touted property tax rebates?

Although the average rebate check is $1,051, according to the Asbury Park Press, this is “hardly cause for celebration” as “no real relief [is] in sight.” Campaigns and Elections reports that “rebates may be a political wash,” and the Daily Record headlined its editorial with “No reason for a celebration.”

To add insult to injury, as the Asbury Park Press also notes, “much of the ‘relief’ is being funded by taxpayers themselves through revenue derived from the increase in the sales tax from 6 percent to 7 percent.” This reality, the Press continues, “strains credibility” for legislative leaders claiming, as Assembly Speaker Joseph J. Roberts, Jr. (D-Camden) did last week, “We are putting more relief directly into the hands of property tax payers than at any time in state history.”

As it turns out (and really to no one’s surprise), the state’s property tax relief is not all it’s chalked up to be. As Bill Dressel, executive director of the New Jersey State League of Municipalities, so accurately put it, “The taxpayer is really left scratching their [sic] head looking at this rebate….The state still has not dealt with the cost drivers that cause these local increases.”

And the Asbury Park Press succinctly summed up the present state of affairs in noting, “A rebate is not tax relief. It’s money homeowners shouldn’t have to shell out in the first place. Real relief will be achieved only when tax bills are lowered by reducing the cost of government.”

If our state legislators truly care for the wellbeing of New Jersey’s families, it is time to reject sound bite “solutions” to out of control-property taxes and implement real relief.

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