Christie puts off property-tax rebates to ease budget problems
MAY 21, 2014, 11:39 PM LAST UPDATED: WEDNESDAY, MAY 21, 2014, 11:47 PM
BY JOHN REITMEYER AND MICHAEL LINHORST
STATE HO– USE BUREAU
THE RECORD
Senior citizens, disabled residents and other homeowners who are among the more than a million people enrolled in New Jersey’s Homestead program will not get their property tax relief this year.
That relief — in the form of a credit on annual property tax bills — is again being delayed by Governor Christie and his administration, who blame another bad budget year.
The latest delay means people won’t see this benefit until May 2015 — nearly two years since the last time the tax-relief credit was available.
“When you’re running out of money, you’ve got to manage your cash carefully,” Christie said on Wednesday, defending the decision to delay the credit as part of a plan to reduce his proposed budget by $1.7 billion. “You’ve got to prioritize your bills and decide which ones you absolutely must pay.”
Christie has now postponed the Homestead program three times since taking office in early 2010. Property taxes in New Jersey are still rising, but not by as much as they had when Christie took office and before he pushed for a 2 percent cap on increases. But they are still growing, to a record high statewide average of $7,988 last year.
– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/news/christie-puts-off-property-tax-rebates-to-ease-budget-problems-1.1020679#sthash.NJ3hvI3O.dpuf
How much did he spend on the special election? How much did he spend on that self-serving so-called investigation into the GWB scandal? And now he takes it out of our pockets.
He cut a 700 million payment to pension obligations.
How much additional tax money will he spend on lawyers to defend himself against the unions that have said they will sue him for reneging on promises to fund their pension funds?
As Thatcher said, sooner or later, you run out of other people’s money
These risk-free pensions are too generous and not in-line with private sector benefits. Even if the NJ plan was fully funded, the benefits are still too generous. A full pension after 25 years at 65% of your final comp (60% for retirees after 2016) based on 10% contributions ? If you want to retire at age 52, go ahead, but don’t start collecting any pension payments until age 65. New hires need to be moved to defined contribution plans to reduce future taxpayer liability. As it stands now, taxpayers are on the hook for any difference between the assumed 7.95% rate of return on NJ pension plan assets (not adjusted for inflation) and actual returns. It’s an unlimited liability for taxpayers, and risk-free for municipal pensioners. No private sector employer would ever agree to that deal, so why do taxpayers?
$7,988 in average statewide property taxes (which continue to rise) and we still have budget issues like this ? Not good. Why would any business want to relocate it’s employees to NJ to suffer this fate? There’s no money left to invest in roads, bridges and tunnels or tax breaks for residents and businesses. Complete mess. There is lots of blame to go around here.
Have you missed any of your pension checks #1? Have your healthcare bills gone unpaid? Are you living in poverty, with no food on your table? Are you enjoying that subsided mortgage care of the NJ pension plan at rates 15% cheaper than NJ banks offer? There’s no risk of anything ever being taken out of your pockets.