file photo by Boyd Loving
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Trenton NJ, NJBIA urged lawmakers to pass legislation today that calls for municipal and county governments to share services to reduce costs and achieve some much-needed fiscal discipline in a state with the highest property taxes per capita in the nation.
The legislation, S-1, sponsored by Senate President Steve Sweeney (D-3) and Senator Vin Gopal (D-11), is scheduled for a Senate vote this afternoon. The legislation, strongly supported by NJBIA, is one of the many cost-saving recommendations contained in the “Path to Progress” report issued by New Jersey Fiscal Policy Working Group in 2018.
“These are very challenging fiscal times for New Jersey and our financial problems are deeply systemic,” said NJBIA Vice President of Government Affairs Christopher Emigholz. “New Jersey county and municipal governments need to identify cost-savings wherever that can be found and pass that savings on to property taxpayers. This bill is a step in the right direction.”
Nearly $31 billion in revenue was raised by local property taxes to support spending by county and municipal governments, and school districts across the state in 2020, according to figures released by the Department of Community Affairs in February. Property taxpayers paid an average of $9,112 to support that spending.
In 2021, the Tax Foundation performed an analysis of property taxes in all 50 states and found that New Jersey has the highest per capita property taxes in the nation.
“Reducing the cost of government is important for all New Jersey property taxpayers, including businesses that are struggling to recover from the pandemic and paying the highest local property taxes in the nation,” Emigholz said.
“Encouraging shared services agreements at the local level will help ensure that local property tax dollars are being spent most effectively.”
Its a drop in the bucket.
The union employees who work for the state and municipalities should pay their own medical,
and have 401K instead of defined benefit pension plans.
Any jobs that can be contracted out to private entities should go to bid: streets, garbage, parks etc.
But fat chance of any of this happening in a state where politicians are beholden to the unions.
This will be a push to have the Counties control everything. It’s not enough the Dems have screwed up where they have total control. Now the want to expand to other towns. Why? Because they need more money to feed the beast.