3-30-17
By Michael Aron
Chief Political Correspondent
New Jersey is famous for saddling its homeowners with high tax bills. That prompted Paul Waters from Brigantine to ask, “Why are New Jersey property taxes some of the highest in the nation?”
There is not one answer.
Most obvious is that New Jersey has 565 municipalities, down from 567 — that’s 565 mayors, councils, town governments.
New Jersey also has more than 600 school districts, 586 of which are operational, each with its own superintendent and administrative structure.
Then there are the 21 county governments and their bureaucracies.
Public worker salaries and benefits are relatively high in New Jersey thanks to aggressive public sector unions.
Throw in the generally high cost of goods and services in the New York-Philadelphia region and you begin to see why our property taxes have been the highest in the nation for years.
https://www.njtvonline.org/news/video/ask-away-new-jersey-property-taxes-high/
Too many municipalities, even more active school districts, too much county government, 70% more cops per capita than average of other states according to FBI data, getting paid in average 50% more…. and aggressive unions trying to squeeze as much blood as they can out of NJ taxpayers and property owners to pay for the constituents above. All cheered on and backed by friendly, bought and paid for by union votes politicians like Vince Prieto, Paul Sarlo and Steve Sweeney in Trenton. The whole system is rigged to increase property taxes to unsustainable levels to pay for for unsustainable wages & benefits. It can’t end well for anyone.