SEPTEMBER 14, 2014, 11:54 PM LAST UPDATED: SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2014, 11:54 PM BY MONSY ALVARADO STAFF WRITER THE RECORD
Fourteen-year-old Elizita and her father arrived at the West New York registration offices around 7:15 a.m. Thursday, hoping to enroll her in school.
But it would be a dream deferred. The family, who waited outside in the crisp air, was told to come back. They were sent to get a physical, which included a tuberculosis test, that would clear Elizita to start school.
“If it won’t be tomorrow, then I’ll start Monday,” she said in Spanish after making a doctor’s appointment.
It had been a long journey for Elizita to this point — the dream of an American education — after a grueling two-week trek earlier this summer out of Guatemala and into this county illegally with her 16-year-old cousin to join her father in North Jersey.
When more than 50% of New Jersey state aid is dedicated to 5% of our schools, Save Jerseyans, thanks largely to the New Jersey Supreme Court’s interference, then no one should be surprised when New Jersey’s property taxes are the highest in the nation. It’s simple math… something that they’re not doing a particularly good job of teaching in those 5%-districts! Or many of the rest of them, too, if we’re being honest.
School funding is one of our favorite topics at Save Jersey; if you’re a visual learner, here’s a particularly excellent explanatory video dropped by the Assembly GOP on Tuesday. It’s hard to ignore the problem when the numbers are staring right back at you…
– See more at: https://savejersey.com/2014/09/property-tax-bill-new-jersey-school-funding-formula/#sthash.vTHo4wMh.dpuf
The Ridgewood Taxpayers’ Association is looking to reactivate
The Ridgewood Taxpayers’ Association is a non-profit corporation organized in the state of New Jersey in 1993 .
The purposes of the Ridgewood Taxpayers’ Association are as follows :
*To monitor and analyze of the Village and Board of Education ;
*To provide recommendations to the Village and BOE on how to operate on a cost effective basis ;
*To monitor the actions taken by the state of New Jersey , Bergen County the BOE and any governmental entity which has or may have an impact on the taxes of the Village of Ridgewood ;
*To provide information to the citizens of the Village of Ridgewood on the operation of their government and costs associated therewith :
*To promote local, regional and state legislation for the fair taxation of Ridgewood residents ;
*To evaluate candidates for public office .
Membership is available to residents of Ridgewood or anyone who maintains a business address in the Village of Ridgewood .
The Ridgewood Taxpayers’ Association is looking for Board Members and those interested should email there resume and a short cover letter to: [email protected]
Readers Question Dr Fishbeins push to increase Beauracracy
Removing middle managers was a good fiscal move. Painful, but they are gone. Best to let it alone. Three more is plenty.
This is a town of 25,000, not 25,000,000. We can’t afford to replace them now–the logic is very thin. These salaries, benefits, and pensions are very high.
Is Dr. Fishbein looking to list more underlings on his CV when job hunting in Connecticut?
Its that time of the Year Again : Its ‘for the kids’
Just in case anyone here doubts it…the majority of our ‘temporary residents’ don’t give a shit about the finances here or the taxes, since they will be leaving the rest of us once their latest offspring graduates RHS.(my neighbor just said this again and they were here for 3 yrs so far!)
They THINK paying more for teachers means their dumb kid will get into a better college.
And they ‘suck it up’, pay the taxes, then beat feet out of here.
I have a proposal, and it should be applied to property taxes STATEWIDE, just as is done in Florida.
You pay property taxes based upon the assessment or purchase price when you bought it.
It protects long time residents from tax increase from the whims of newbies.
Keeping long time residents who actually CARE about the community is why the newbies like it enough to move here.
And if you’re dumb enough to pay an inflated value for the perceived benefits…be my guest. Just don’t stick me with the tab.
Ridgewood council members, school board trustees talk taxes
APRIL 10, 2014 LAST UPDATED: THURSDAY, APRIL 10, 2014, 2:46 PM
BY LAURA HERZOG
STAFF WRITER
After receiving a short presentation on next year’s preliminary school budget, members of the Village Council questioned the Board of Education (BOE) on Monday about “efficiencies” and expressed an interest in more collaboration to potentially save taxpayers money.
District officials, meanwhile, highlighted the high performance level of Ridgewood’s schools and several already-existing fiscal efficiencies, while noting that Ridgewood’s school district receives relatively little state aid in comparison to poorer districts.
The two elected bodies have collaborated in several ways in the past year. In September, the council confirmed that the district owned Heermance Place and could therefore reserve it for Ridgewood High School faculty parking. In February, the council extended a smoking ban in village parks to sidewalks outside of BOE properties (including fields and schools). Now, the council is also discussing the potential of allocating the district a police officer specifically entrusted to the schools, known as a school resource officer, or SRO.
After Monday’s budget presentation in the BOE building, some council members, all of whom but Councilman Tom Riche were present, suggested there may be future ways to increase the district’s efficiency. Last year, the council managed to present taxpayers with a flat budget increase, and is working on doing the same this year. Ridgewood’s school budget for next year, which accounts for about two thirds of residents’ property taxes, includes a 1.908 percent local tax levy increase.
– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/news/education/ridgewood-council-members-school-board-trustees-talk-taxes-1.898582#sthash.Dfi1OmS6.dpuf
Balancing act for North Jersey towns, residents as tough times give rise to tax appeals
MARCH 29, 2014, 11:38 PM LAST UPDATED: SATURDAY, MARCH 29, 2014, 11:40 PM
BY MARY DIDUCH
STAFF WRITER
THE RECORD
As a deadline to file tax appeals looms Tuesday, municipalities in North Jersey are facing another wave of property owners asking for a break — and another round of worries about a dwindling tax base.
Tax appeals from residents and business owners remain high for the third straight year, a new normal that indicates the slow economic recovery still has people watching their expenses closely.
Outdated property assessments are partly to blame. But homeowners are also more savvy about the appeals process, experts say. Most have nothing to lose, save the nominal filing fee.
And big businesses are becoming serious about slashing spending by routinely filing annual appeals — even taking towns, like Woodcliff Lake, to court — to pay a smaller share.
All this has led some towns to face budget shortfalls or issue debt as they scramble to dig deep for refunds. For many officials, it’s a balancing act as they struggle to rein in costs and keep property taxes — some of the highest in the nation — down.
The Village Council has scheduled the first of several Budget Hearings for 5PM on Wednesday, March 19th. The Hearing will take place in the Village Hall Court Room, 4th Level, 131 N. Maple Avenue, Ridgewood. Additional dates to follow.
Reader says Ridgewood’s effective property tax increase was +4% based on the realized decline in property prices.
According to a Tarvin Realtors report on Ridgewood home sale prices as a percentage of tax assessment value, the average sales price in 2013 was 108.35% of the full tax reassessment in 2012-2013 (source: https://www.tarvinrealtors.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/2013-December-RWD-Sold-v-Assessed-Value.pdf ). The 2012-2013 reassessment cut the average home value in Ridgewood by 13%, so that implies that average property prices fell by 4.65% YoY vs. 2012 based on realized sales prices in 2013 (8.35% – 13%). However, overall property taxes were flat to up YoY, so that’s an effective tax increase of +4% based on the realized decline in property prices.
New Jersey Property-Tax Bills Increases slowed to 1.7% still set a Record
By Elise Young Mar 13, 2014 8:15 PM ET
The average property-tax bill in New Jersey, which already has the highest in the U.S., rose 1.7 percent last year, Governor Chris Christie said.
More than 80 towns, school boards and other local governments saw their taxes drop, while about 160 had increases of less than 1 percent, according to an e-mail from the governor’s office.
New Jersey’s property taxes, which are collected by local governments, increased about 7 percent annually in 2004, 2005 and 2006 before the rate began to slow. Christie, a second-term Republican, has controlled the growth after enacting a 2 percent annual cap. Still, the tax climbed to a record of more than $8,000 per household, from the previous high of $7,885 in 2012, according to calculations by Bloomberg.
“This is the lowest rate of growth in 24 years in this state,” Christie said yesterday at a town-hall meeting in Mount Laurel.
He called on the Democratic-controlled legislature to renew the state’s interest-arbitration cap, which expires on March 31, as a way to contain future growth. It limits the fees for arbitrators, attorneys and others involved in negotiating public-worker contracts.
Ridgewood Village Council; take a lesson from Little Falls were officials give up salaries
MARCH 13, 2014, 2:02 AM LAST UPDATED: THURSDAY, MARCH 13, 2014, 2:02 AM
BY JEFF GREEN
STAFF WRITER
THE RECORD
LITTLE FALLS – In a gesture of solidarity with frustrated taxpayers, Mayor Darlene Post and the Township Council are forgoing their $2,000-a-year salaries in a lean 2014 budget that all but cuts essential government services.
The $15.7 million budget, introduced by the council Monday night, calls for a $97 property tax increase for the owner of home valued at the township average of $302,000. It scales back new initiatives, reins in legal expenses, and for the second year in a row withholds raises for non-contractual employees.
The flood-prone township’s finances are so tight, officials say, that it can’t afford a new truck for the public works superintendent so his old one can be passed on to the emergency management coordinator for use in extreme weather. The coordinator has no vehicle.
“There were cuts made and there were requests that weren’t made so we could keep [taxes] flat,” Post said. She said under the circumstances, the budget is “as good as it gets, as bitter as it is.”
Property tax battle: Deadline looms on expiration of key law
TRENTON — Mayors say a group with an obscure and achingly bureaucratic name has been the most important tool in slowing the growth of New Jersey’s property taxes, the highest in the nation.
For the last three years, arbitrators who decide contract disputes between towns and their police and fire unions — known collectively as the Interest Arbitration Task Force — have been limited to increasing the workers’ salaries by just 2 percent.
But if the Legislature doesn’t act by April 1, that limit will expire. That would leave towns constrained by a 2 percent cap in overall tax increases but with less control over how much to pay police officers and firemen.
“We’re playing a little Russian roulette here,” said Bill Dressel, executive director of the League of Municipalities. “We could see arbitration awards potentially exceed the 2 percent cap that would put a stranglehold on municipalities to the extent that they would have to cut services.”
Gov. Chris Christie in his January State of the State speech called on the Legislature to make the cap permanent. (Friedman/Star-Ledger)
Reader says the Ridgewood municipal is budget is well managed and the BOE budget is where the runaway spending is
Do you want to base your conclusions on the faulty FAC report and ignore the fact that the Village provides more services at a lower municipal mil rate than all of the other towns I referred to in my post as #20 that is fine. None of the towns listed there provide garbage pickup, fully staffed fire services, recreation services for kids and seniors or a sewage treatment facility for their residents, that is a fact, and. How that is a union talking point is beyond me.
You claimed that I am only providing half of the story and I am leaving out the property taxpayer’s perspective,” I am a taxpayer, and have been a taxpayer in Ridgewood for many years. If anything is only providing half the story it’s your FAC report. It only tells half the story since it does not even consider the cost to the residents for the Board of Education (BOE). If your report included the BOE then I would have to agree that the largest portion of the Village Tax bill (BOE) has been increased at an alarming rate and is not sustainable.
How do I arrive at that conclusion? Here is the 2011 Bergen County property tax data showing the town – County – total tax levy – % County Taxes – % School Taxes % – Municipal taxes. This is the latest year available on the NJ.com by the numbers web site. There are 70 Municipalities in Bergen County. Below are 18 municipalities that have an equal or greater percentage of their municipal taxes dedicated to the school budget like Ridgewood. The other 51 municipalities have a lower percentage than Ridgewood dedicated to their school budget and a higher percentage number dedicated to their municipal services. Ridgewood’s municipal tax levy is lower than the other 51 Municipalities in Bergen county and is even below the state calculated average of 29%. You can draw your own conclusions from this data however this data clearly shows that the Village municipal budget is very well managed as contrasted with other Bergen County Communities and the overall state average. It also indicates that BOE budget is out of control and unsustainable.
Town – County – tax levy – % County – % BOE – % Municipal
Ridgewood Village Bergen $130,248,198.77 10% 65% 25%
Woodcliff Lake Borough Bergen $38,129,520.22 12% 66% 22%
Statewide total $25,643,843,500.01 18% 52% 29% of 567 municipalities
https://www.nj.com/news/bythenumbers/
This information confirms that the Ridgewood municipal is budget is well managed and the BOE budget is where the runaway spending is since the Ridgewood BOE takes a higher percentage of the total tax bill than 51 other Bergen county municipalities. The FAC report ignores this fact, and therefor is even more faulty than I originally thought.
Readers says Financial Advisory Committee report and it contains inaccurate data, false assumptions
First of all the report does not say the village should not have a paid fire dept. I have read the Financial Advisory Committee report and it contains inaccurate data, false assumptions and more important than those it has incomplete data. The people complaining about high taxes here are only telling half of the story. You don’t hear those people complaining about the higher salaries they earn here than in other states do you? And of course they are not complaining of the high property values either especially when they are going up! By a percentage ratio N.J. residents pay a similar percentage of their homes value in property taxes when compared to other parts of the country.
The state of NJ and specifically the Village provides more services (like garbage pickup, recreation services for kids, local police & Fire services, assistance and social services for seniors, just to name a few) and an overall better quality of life for the tax dollars than most of the other states. When you look at the complete picture you see those who are complaining about property taxes are focusing on only one thing and not giving you the complete picture.
These are state averages of 2012 property tax as a percentage of home value.
New Jersey $7,318 2.32%
New Hampshire $5,230 2.18%
Connecticut $5,200 1.88%
New York $5,040 1.68%
Illinois $4,469 2.28%
Vermont $4,328 1.62%
Rhode Island $3,820 1.67%
Massachusetts $3,805 1.19%
Wisconsin $3,530 2.07%
Alaska $3,290 1.28%
The state of NJ and the Village provide more services (like garbage pickup, recreation services for kids, local police, assistance and social services for seniors) and an overall better quality of life for the tax dollars than most of the other states. When you look at the complete picture you see those who are complaining about property taxes are focusing on only one thing and not giving you the complete picture.
Reader says Outsourcing may be appropriate in some cases. But, that is not necessarily a panacea.
People… Take a step back and look at the bigger picture. It is not just about decisions that this or the previous council made.
It is definitely not about snow removal.
It is not about the 2010 reduction in village staffing in a few unfortunate departments (employee-related liabilities have dramatically increased, NOT decreased).
Read the Financial Advisory Committee report that was posted to the Village website a while back. It is eye-opening and spells out very clearly the situation that has developed over decades and is totally unsustainable, without thoughtful (but dramatic) cultural and management changes across ALL village departments.
Outsourcing may be appropriate in some cases. But, that is not necessarily a panacea.
