NYTimes: NJ Lawmakers to Tackle Property Taxes

[rusty charly]

“Something has to happen now,” said John A. Meyerle, chairman of the New Jersey Coalition for Property Tax Reform. “People in this state are at the end of their ability to deal with the six percent and seven percent annual increases. People are leaving the state. The senior citizens are being driven out of their homes. How much longer can we tolerate that? We can’t.”

With such an ambitious special session — the first held by the Legislature in two decades — New Jersey will join states like South Carolina and Texas that have convened similar sessions and adopted laws to deal with property tax rates that have increased at dizzying rates in recent years.

-snip-

The decision by the Democrat-controlled Legislature and the Democratic governor is not without its political peril, because reining in property taxes could well involve increasing other taxes or reducing spending, alienating some voters and providing grist for Republican candidates.

-snip-

In evaluating the property tax rates in New Jersey, a central question emerges: How did tax bills grow so much so quickly? The answer lies in what critics say is an over-reliance on property taxes, which are mainly used by municipalities — with virtually no direction from the state — to pay for local services like public education and police and fire departments. Indeed, New Jersey has come to depend on property taxes for about 45 percent of its total tax revenue, while nationwide that figure is only is about 30 percent.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/28/nyregion/28TAX.html?ref=nyregion

[ramapo]

1. Good luck to us

I like to think our lawmakers have the guts to pass radical legislation that attacks all the sacred cows. Municipal and state employees, teachers, one-and-two school districts with their glut of administrators, local police and fire, to name just a few.

Unless everybody winds up pissed off, the legislature will have failed.