Tag: property taxes

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Assemblywomen Offers Straight talk on Tax Reform

Holly Schepisi and Bob Auth

photo of Holly Schepisi and Bob Auth

October 22,2017

the staff of the Ridgewood blog

River Vale NJ, assemblywomen Holly Schepisi  reiterates our thoughts on tax reform and the poor position New Jersey is in being one of the highest taxed states in the nation. ”  Thinking about property taxes, New Jersey and the federal property tax deduction. New Jersey residents pretty much get hosed in every way possible when it comes to taxes. Residents in the communities I represent and the other residents of Bergen County currently pay about 30 percent of the entire NJ State Budget and receive back less than 3 percent of that money. At the federal level New Jersey only gets back 74 cents for each $1 it sends to Washington, making it the lowes…t reimbursement in the country.”

“As a result of ridiculously unfair school funding formulas, our residents pay the highest property taxes in the nation. The ONLY tax relief our residents have had is the ability to deduct our property taxes from our federal tax returns. Now the US Senate has voted to eliminate this deduction. I wholeheartedly disagree with the Senate Republicans on this issue. However I also put blame at the feet of the NJ Democrats who have controlled the New Jersey legislature for 16 years and our US Senators who have been controlled by the Democrats since 1982 (other than a short several month stint by Jeff Chiesa). How and why do we have the highest property taxes in the nation? Why do we receive the least amount of funding back from the federal government? Why won’t my Bergen County colleagues on the other side of the aisle fight alongside me for fairer funding of OUR residents? We cannot continue doing things the same way in this State. It is reaching a breaking point for our working middle class and our seniors. I hear campaign slogans about suburbs having to “pay their fair share.” We pay well beyond our “fair share” and we all must stand up together and fight back while we still can.”

District 39 – (Bergen and Passaic)  Bloomingdale, Closter, Demarest, Dumont, Emerson, Harrington Park, Haworth, Hillsdale, Mahwah, Montvale, Norwood, Oakland, Old Tappan, Park Ridge, Ramsey, Ringwood, River Vale, Saddle River, Upper Saddle River, Wanaque, Washington (Bergen), Westwood, Woodcliff Lake  .

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The RidgewoodEstateCard Use it for Everyday Spending to Reduce your Tax Burden 

CBD Ridgewood by ArtChick

file photo by ArtChick

September 30,2017
the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood NJ, Ridgewood has rolled out the Ridgewood Estate Card, a new property tax savings program now available to Ridgewood property owners. The program offers a debit like card that offers a reward on purchases that is automatically applied to reduce Ridgewood property taxes billed to the cardholder. An even greater level of reward is offered at participating local and online merchants. Tax rewards are applied annually to the third quarter tax bill.

If you visit RidgewoodEstateCard.com you can learn more about this exciting opportunity and to sign up for the program. Once signed up, one will receive their card via US mail in 5-7 business days. Each time the card is used, a percentage of that purchase is earned toward property tax reduction. Reward amounts are listed in both the cardholder’s online account and on the easy to use Card Rewards mobile app.

Use the card for your everyday spending and simultaneously reduce your property tax! On every dollar you spend, a percentage is earned as a reward paid towards your property tax. The more you spend, the less you owe!

The Estate Card also encourages local spending with many Central Business District merchants are offering a higher reward earned on local purchases, ultimately creating growth and sustainability in your community.

Take a look , White Maple Café offers a 5% tax reward , Ridgewood Eyewear a 10% tax reward , Taylor & Taylor Oriental Rugs offers a 30% tax reward , so if you just replace the card you are using for the shopping you are currently doing  you will save money on your property taxes. https://ridgewoodestatecard.com/shop/localstores  .

There are also over 3,200 online merchants  that offer Ridgewood property tax rewards  https://ridgewoodestatecard.com/shop/stores .

Cardholders can earn a base reward of .25% on all transactions and as much as an additional 25% at participating local and online merchants.

The RidgewoodEstateCard website also offers a Search function to find the best price with the largest tax reward amount. Save money while paying down your taxes!

You can also share a deal in your reward account. If you want a family member or friend to be able to take advantage, no problem, share the deal with them or post it to social media, they will get the deal and you will earn the tax reward!

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Tax Facts: Getting Beyond All the Talk About New Jersey’s Taxes

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file photo by Boyd Loving

John Reitmeyer | September 13, 2017

More taxes, no new taxes, higher taxes, marijuana taxes, corporate taxes, tax relief, and even a new tax structure — it’s definitely an election year in the Garden State

Tax reform is becoming a hot topic in Washington, D.C., as President Donald Trump is looking for Congress to cut both corporate and personal income-tax rates. Similarly, the future of New Jersey tax policy is also expected to become a key issue in Trenton once the state welcomes its next governor early next year.

Democrats who control New Jersey’s Legislature signaled several months ago as they were hashing out a new state budget with Gov. Chris Christie that they would be pushing once again for a millionaires tax to bring in more funding for local school districts once the term-limited Republican governor leaves office in January 2018.

And if Democratic gubernatorial candidate Phil Murphy ends up winning the gubernatorial election in November — something that the latest public-opinion polls suggest is likely — legislative leaders should find a willing partner. Murphy’s own fiscal platform includes a call for enacting a higher levy on the state’s wealthiest residents, among other tax-policy changes.

But even if Murphy’s opponent, Republican Kim Guadagno, ends up pulling off an upset, she’s also talking about tax reform. The centerpiece of her economic agenda is a more than $1 billion “circuit breaker” property-tax relief initiative.

https://www.njspotlight.com/stories/17/09/12/tax-facts-getting-beyond-all-the-talk-about-new-jersey-s-taxes/

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Municipal consolidation: Will it mean mergers or collisions?

shotgun wedding

 

Updated on September 3, 2017 at 8:02 AM Posted on September 3, 2017 at 6:30 AM

With an election coming up, we’re hearing a lot about consolidating towns and school districts as a means of solving our property-tax problem.

Before this goes any further, let me warn all involved about the nature of such transactions.

Consolidations are like weddings. There are two types: weddings of attraction, into which both partners enter willingly; and shotgun weddings, in which one party takes part only because of compulsion.

The latter describes one Monmouth County town that I covered in the waning days of the Corzine administration, Loch Arbour.

The elected officials of this charming little town by the sea entered into a mutually beneficial pact with nearby Ocean Township when they set up a shared-services agreement. They would send their kids to Ocean schools in return for a per-pupil payment of about $15,000 per year.

https://www.nj.com/opinion/index.ssf/2017/09/municipal_consolidation_will_it_mean_mergers_or_co.html#incart_river_home

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Reader says the typical resident moves after their kids graduate

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…I am a ‘new’ resident with non-school age children who has paid $120k in taxes over the last 4 years. And some ‘old’ 25+yr residents made a pretty penny when they sold their house to me to decamp to Florida….

Anyone who purchased property anywhere 25 years ago can sell it for more than they paid for it. BFD. Home values in 07450 did not outpace the increase of any other town. It’s called inflation. And the IRS allows a slight exemption to those selling, but does not index it for inflation.

So your point is moot. (Resident here since 1969 paying lots of taxes and never had any children in the schools). There has always been a gradual turnover/migration out of here when the typical resident moves after their kids graduate. The obvious point being made is that if you increase that level of seniors leaving (who subsidize those with school age children ) it will cost the remaining residents exponentially more.

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Reader says Ridgewood Residents have never had a tax increase they didn’t like

BOE_theridgewoodblog

Yes , everyone payes taxes but it is the long time residents who are burdened with the annual tax increases. Were you around when Ridgewood had the bright idea of adding a pool to the high school so the snowflakes did not have to travel to the YMCA? Fortunately, common sense prevailed and the pool was voted down. Not everyone has a bottomless bank account.
Take a look at the curriculum and see where some non-essential classes could be eliminated.
The all-knowing Board of Education eliminated shop class and an auto mechanic class a number of years ago because the residents thought these classes were below “Ridgewood educational standards ” and “decreasing enrollment”. These career paths can lead to financial independence as young adults. But I digress…

Final thoughts…Ridgewood never had a tax increase they didn’t like and they definitely don’t believe in the term ” budget neutral”.

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Exclusive: Murphy Plans to Raise $1.3 Billion in Taxes

Phill Murphy -Sara Medina del Castillo

Tax hikes for millionaires, hedge fund managers, large corporations and pot smokers anchor Democrat’s plan.

Phil Murphy’s proposed tax increases would raise roughly $1.3 billion a year, his spokesman told Observer on Thursday, releasing for the first time a cost estimate of the Democratic gubernatorial nominee’s plans to pay for a multitude of campaign promises.

A separate $80 million to $100 million would be generated through savings from reining in out-of-network health care costs for public workers covered by state plans, the spokesman said, for a total annual gain of $1.4 billion in revenue.

https://observer.com/2017/08/exclusive-murphy-plans-to-raise-1-3-billion-in-taxes/?utm_campaign=new-jersey-politics&utm_content=2017-18-08-10376743&utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_term=channel-new-jersey-politics-distribution

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THAW FOR SENIOR FREEZE PROPERTY-TAX RELIEF FROZEN OUT OF 2018 BUDGET

Ridgewood Realestate

JOHN REITMEYER | JULY 31, 2017

Many NJ seniors won’t qualify for property-tax reimbursement because program was capped at $70K following Great Recession — and that’s where the cap remains

A recent poll of New Jersey voters indicated the top issue this gubernatorial election year is the state’s notoriously high property taxes. Ever-rising property tax bills are also a particularly troubling issue for the state’s senior citizens because many are living on fixed incomes.

Yet the most recent state budget signed into law by Gov. Chris Christie earlier this month included fine print written quietly into budget documents that will keep many seniors from being able to collect sizable reimbursement checks that are offered through one of the state’s most popular property-tax relief programs.

The budget language effectively overrides the state law that funds the “senior freeze” Property Tax Reimbursement Program by lowering the program’s annual income cap from near $90,000 to $70,000. The cost-cutting measure started as the state faced deep budget problems in the wake of the Great Recession, but it has been maintained ever since even as revenue collections have now rebounded.

In the past, Democratic lawmakers have tried to block the income-cap change, but Christie, a second-term Republican, has used the line-item veto pen to override their wishes. But this year, Democrats prioritized increased funding for local school districts and several other programs in a budget showdown with Christie, leaving the frozen senior-freeze income cap in place for another year. That means it will likely be up to the state’s next governor to determine whether New Jersey seniors will eventually be made whole.

https://www.njspotlight.com/stories/17/07/30/thaw-for-senior-freeze-property-tax-relief-frozen-out-of-2018-budget/

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Phil Murphy Funding the Over Development Push in New Jersey

phill murphy over developement
July 29,2017

the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood NJ, no surprise here that state Democrats are funding over building in Bergen County and looking to destroy the quality of life ,turning the county into another borough of Manhattan .

“Anyone who follows me knows I have been fighting to bring rational discussion to the over development crisis impacting most of our communities. As a result I have been labeled a racist, xenophobe and a whole host of awful and untrue things by a non profit organization Fair Share Housing Development. Imagine my surprise today when I saw that their top donor list includes gubernatorial candidate Phil Murphy! And we wonder why our communities are receiving no help from their representatives in Trenton.” , Assemblywomen Holly Schepisi .

In Ridgewood this blog has long warned of over development , even warning residents to not vote for  a Hudson County Mayor .
Unfortunately the warnings went unheeded and after the “3 amigos ” reign of terror in the Village is now faced with 4 major high density housing developments  that will deplete the Village of Resources , pressure water,sewer, fire ,police and education as well as lower property values  and increase tax rates.

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Towns where property taxes hurt the most in each of N.J.’s 21 counties

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file photo by Boyd Loving

Updated July 18, 2017
Posted July 18, 2017

By Samantha Marcus | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

So where in your county do property taxes hurt the most?

Last month, we showed you which towns in New Jersey had the highest property tax burdens, which is to say, those where the average property tax bill takes up the biggest share of median household income.

Here, we pulled out the top towns from each of New Jersey’s 21 counties.

New Jersey has the nation’s highest property taxes, but it’s much worse in some parts of the state than others. For example, Cumberland’s pain index is far lower than other counties. Top towns in eight counties did not crack our top 30 list for property tax pain.

Some of the state’s 565 municipalities were excluded from our analysis, as the median income margin of error was too high because of the American Community Survey’s small sample size.

Here’s the county-by-county list.

https://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2017/07/highest_property_tax_burdens_in_all_21_counties.html#incart_river_mobileshort_home_pop

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Housing isn’t affordable because residents pay property taxes that are often as much as their mortgage payments

Assemblywoman Holly Schepisi

July 8,2017

the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood NJ, Below is a link to an Op Ed piece Assemblywomen Holly Schepisi wrote in today’s Bergen Record regarding affordable housing.

” Housing isn’t affordable because residents pay property taxes that are often as much as their mortgage payments. Onerous court mandates on towns only drive property taxes higher, creating a never-ending cycle of un-affordability.”

“…we must define reasonable need. The costs associated with mandated affordable housing, like $15.25 billion more to fund education, aren’t taken into consideration by the court. The COAH should take into account current population size; infrastructure, water and sewer capacities; school class sizes and school services; and the impact of municipal services such as volunteer and staffed ambulatory services, fire departments, police departments, public transportation and traffic.

We must fix this issue before it is too late. Please join me in saving our beloved state while we still can.”

https://www.northjersey.com/…/how-we-fix-affordab…/455023001/

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Assemblywomen Holly Schepisi Forces Vote On Her Anti-Overdevelopement at 1 am 4th of July

CBD high density housing

Bergen Democrats Do Nothing 

July 6,2017

the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Trenton NJ, At 1 am on the 4th of July Assemblywomen Holly Schepisi finally had an opportunity to force a vote on her bills which would help our towns in their fight against forced over development. Not surprising, but certainly disappointing, the Bergen County democratic members of the Assembly all voted to stop my legislation from moving forward. Chairman Jerry Green gave a speech as to why he won’t move the bills forward stating among other things that the legislature should essentially cede its duties and obligations to the Courts. Schepisi has asked for a copy of the video of his speech which she will circulate promptly. The attached link is a copy of her speech.

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Another tax climate survey shows dismal results for New Jersey

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file photo by Boyd Loving

By Vince Calio, June 27, 2017 at 1:19 PM

Yet another business survey has found that New Jersey has one of the worst tax climates for small businesses, but those numbers may not be telling the whole story.

The Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council’s Small Business Tax Index 2017 ranked all 50 states on how friendly their tax climates are to small businesses. New Jersey finished second to last overall, beating out only California. The result has not changed since the SBE’s survey was done in 2014.

The five states with the friendliest tax climates for small businesses:

1. Nevada;
2. Texas;
3. South Dakota;
4. Wyoming;
5. Washington state.

Conversely, the five states with the worst tax climates:

46. Iowa;
47. Minnesota;
48. Maine;
49. New Jersey;
50. California.

https://www.njbiz.com/article/20170627/NJBIZ01/170629834/another-tax-climate-survey-shows-dismal-results-for-new-jersey

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30 N.J. towns where property taxes hurt the most

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Updated June 20, 2017
Posted June 20, 2017
By Samantha Marcus | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

Property taxes are consistently one of New Jerseyans’ top concerns, with good reason. At $8,549, they’re the highest in the country. No surprise they’re also a hot topic on the gubernatorial campaign trail.

Republican nominee Kim Guadagno has said she wouldn’t run for re-election in 2021 if she doesn’t deliver property tax relief. Democratic nominee Phil Murphy also thinks he can bring relief.

It’s an especially big problem for many because Jersey’s sky high real estate taxes can claim a good chunk of a homeowners’ income.

The property tax burden hits some towns much harder than others. Here are the 30 towns that feel the most pain from property taxes, based on what their residents earn.

(Some of the state’s 565 municipalities were excluded from our analysis, as the median income margin of error in small towns was too high because of the American Community Survey’s small sample size.)

https://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2017/06/nj_towns_where_taxpayers_feel_the_biggest_pinch.html?ath=9c46bfc08d76232bb5a5e00eeaf0bfa2#cmpid=nsltr_stryheadline

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Democrat Bill Reimbursing Sanctuary Cities for Federal Funding Cuts Continues Advancing

illegal-immigrants

By Alyana Alfaro • 06/19/17 4:25pm

Cities in New Jersey that do not use resources to enforce federal immigration laws regarding undocumented immigrants —known as sanctuary cities— may soon be able to apply for state grants aimed at replacing federal funding that is withheld due to sanctuary jurisdiction.

On Monday, a bill requiring the state to establish a program to replace those federal funding losses (A-4590/S3700) was advanced by the Assembly Budget Committee. The bill was also scheduled to be put up for a vote in the state Senate but was held by Sen. President Steve Sweeney (D-Gloucester) due to the absence of some Democratic members. It will likely be voted on by both houses of the Legislature before the end of the legislative session in June.

“It’s critical for the state to support its local government entities in this dispute,” said Assemblyman Raj Mukherji (D-Hudson), one of the sponsors in the Assembly. “New Jersey is home to Ellis Island, the Gateway to America, and has played a pivotal role in welcoming immigrants to this nation. The state is one of the most diverse in the nation, and its communities and history have unquestionably been enriched and strengthened by welcoming and encouraging this diversity. We must protect this legacy.”

https://observer.com/2017/06/sanctuary-cities-new-jersey-funding/?utm_campaign=new-jersey-politics&utm_content=2017-20-06-9886379&utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_term=channel-new-jersey-politics-source