Bergen County’s property taxes among nation’s highest
MARCH 4, 2015 LAST UPDATED: WEDNESDAY, MARCH 4, 2015, 2:33 PM
BY KATHLEEN LYNN
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD
Bergen County homeowners had the fifth-highest average property tax bill in the nation, at $11,159, last year, according to a new survey by RealtyTrac, a California real estate information company. Passaic County’s single-family tax bill averaged $8,904, according to RealtyTrac.
Nationally, property tax rates average 1.3 percent of the property value, according to RealtyTrac.
Three New York counties — Westchester, Nassau and New York, or Manhattan — as well as Marin County in California had higher average property tax bills than Bergen, according to the survey.
The survey also confirms what Garden State homeowners have found out the hard way: New Jersey’s property taxes are among the highest in the nation, averaging more than 2 percent of a single-family home’s value each year. Passaic actually had a higher tax rate (2.98 percent) than Bergen (2.07 percent), apparently reflecting Passaic County’s lower property values.
Nationally, property tax rates average 1.3 percent of the property value, according to RealtyTrac.
But let’s raise taxes more to pay to subsidize all of the annual increases in healthcare premiums for our BoE and Municipal employee, right? While they pay a minimum amount out of pocket for what are classified as “platinum” plans under the ACA, the rest of us are paying for both our own health care coverage and then subsidizing public workers – how on earth is this fair? And starting in 2018 the BoE and the Village will start having to pay a 40% tax on top of those benefits just because they are so valuable, worth well over $22,000 according to divorce settlement findings on the value of the health plans. Why are Village taxpayers footing all of the annual increase, which was almost $700K (+12% compared to 2013) just for our municipal employees in 2014? This taxpayer give away has to stop, as this article says, we’re already have the fifth-highest average property tax bill in the nation and pay well over 2% of our property value annually in property taxes… we’re literally being taxed to death to pay for essentially free health care benefits. This has to stop.