Loncto absolutely has to go. He is so condescending. He is trying to act like a totally agreeable guy now that THANK GOD we have a candidate running against him. But do not be fooled. Loncto is large and in charge and he wants no one to get in the way of his super intelligence. He absolutely is opposed to having us vote on the budget. Believe me, he is only saying he will support it because he wants to get reelected. he will flip on this be certain.
file photo by Boyd Loving
Given SALT deductions are now limited to $10,000 for property taxes, shouldn’t the Council and BOE be aware that the vast majority of Ridgewood residents have seen an effective tax INCREASE and be looking for ways to reduce the burden? Realized sales values suggest home values will need to decline in the next assessment, so unless they jack up the mill rate, municipal tax revenue levels are unsustainable?
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
ROSELAND, N.J. – In an effort to address questions that New Jersey homeowners have over how their property taxes are allocated and what’s at work when they pay their tax bill, the New Jersey Society of Certified Public Accountants (NJCPA) partnered with New Jersey Realtors and the Association of Municipal Assessors of New Jersey to publish the “New Jersey Homeowner’s Guide to Property Taxes.”
What will it take for the Council to take the plugs out of their ears and blinders off their eyes? Residents have been begging, pleading, showing how items can only bankrupt the town and make taxes even higher with no sign that the council has heard or read a word. If the library wants to grow (unnecessarily)it can self fund. Most of the tutors, self employed business people, and book readers are not even from Ridgewood. Self funding would include monies from these people and let the Ridgewood taxpayers alone from providing luxury items that everyone (including the library board–they just “want it” not “need it”) knows is not essential. If the board still feels it is necessary, start your fund drive and wait to see if you get one red cent to splurge on the library and take from libraries and towns who NEED the money just to survive. The council is all spend, spend, spend and who cares if Ridgewood has enough money to pay their new debts. And we thought the prior council was bad. The present one is composed of nice people with not one bit of economic knowledge in all their heads put together.
The cash river spend-a thon that has been flowing downhill from the VC on Raised Garage Bonding ,,centralized parking valets ala carte , skyjacking the parking rates and times ….blow up the train station parking for invisible compact cars that don’t exist in the
1000 dollar permit club up there …has everyone muscling in on the spend a thon…including rumors of a PAC no less..
Can’t make this up….meantime castle homes up in highlands are not selling and prices soft…Ie Tax re-evaluations requests for tax rate adjustments to come..
less cash in the VOR ACCOUNTS..PERFECT STORM..PS SCHOOL BUDGET 110 Million and growing . Houston..we have a problem ….reply : RESTRAINT ..voyagers..
file photo by Boyd Loving
As a long time resident of Ridgewood my observation is that we are sinking fast and no one is working to save things. The value of my house since 2005 has gone down and overall high end values have been reduced 10-30%. Real numbers we paid 2.5m in 2005 rebuilt the entire house for an added cost of almost 1m and recently appraised at 1.7m and can’t sell it. This when taxes have gone from 27k to over 40k. The schools have eroded, the village is in shabby shape in many places, the commute to NYC assuming a village resident can get a parking spot after 6:45am is awful requiring a dreaded switch (no direct trains).
Really a shame and a study in how weak and inexperienced leadership can really drive down a community. We keep electing lightweights to village, school, and other positions and expect change.
Look for my house. Is is one of many with a for sale sign out front. Real sad but really time to go
We actually need an emergency cost reduction plan for the next 18 to 24 months.lets start with suspension of all but
the most serious Utility work where police idle in front of
minor utility work on side streets for no justifiable reason ,
when PSEG can be tasked on 90days notice to provide
OWN employee flag workers OR SUBS to protect the work site.
Let PSEG PAY THEIR PENSIONS AND Benefits .
For major wire or street closure or main Avenue Gas projects then let’s
focus the town police use where needed for those major
risks along with PSEG flaggers.
People we have to begin to get our house In order.
TOWN SPENDING IS OUT OF CONTROL.Day of reckoning ahead. People selling and moving out all around us…
Ho-Ho-Kus Board of Education
Ballot Question for Voter Authorization to Exceed Tax Levy Limitation
Question:
In addition to the regular budget, shall the Ho-Ho-Kus Board of Education raise an additional $450,000 in taxes for the 20182019 school year? These taxes will be used to restore cocurricular clubs and athletics that the Board of Education eliminated from the budget, hire an additional teacher, hire a security aide, and pay for technology equipment costs and the Board of Education’s STEAM program. Approval of these taxes will result in a permanent increase to the tax levy.
PROPERTY TAX RELIEF PROGRAMS
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file photo
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, it was is starting to seem like a regular thing the Ridgewood teachers’ union plans to conduct a “walk-in” on the very first day of school to protest working without a contract. The Contract between the district and the Ridgewood Education Association expired on July 1.
Continue reading Ridgewood Teachers to Hold “Walk-in” to Protests lack of Contract
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Montville NJ, In light of the affordability struggles many homeowners are currently facing in New Jersey, Senator Joe Pennacchio is strongly encouraging all eligible residents to apply for the Senior Freeze Property Tax Relief Program, before the October 31, 2018 deadline.
“Pascrell Lambasts Latest Republican Tax Outrage”
July 25,2018
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
WASHINGTON D.C. , Today, Representative Bill Pascrell, Jr. (D-NJ-09), the Ranking Member of the Ways and Means Subcommittee on Trade, hammered the release of the so-called second phase of the Republican tax plan which announced that the egregious cap placed on federal deductions for State and Local Tax Deductions (SALT) would be made permanent.
“As New Jersey’s Yogi Berra liked to say, it’s déjà vu all over again. Another day, another attempt by congressional Republicans to stick it to Garden State. Already burdened with the highest property taxes in America, for years people in my state relied on the state and local tax deduction to provide their families with flexibility to pay their bills. Republicans took care of that, capping those deductions to help pay for a trillion-dollar tax cut for big corporations and big tycoons. Now Republicans are announcing the SALT cap is going to be made permanent to bedevil New Jerseyans for all time. We already know Republicans go out of their way to bring pain on the people of the Northeast. They said so themselves. But they keep trying to prove it again to us. We’ve had it with this garbage. The GOP tax scam should be overturned and the full state and local tax deduction reinstated. Let the top 1% pay their fair share and leave New Jersey the hell alone.”
Pascrell, made no mentions of the 50 or so years of unabated irresponsible fiscal policies of the state New Jersey or the “Garden State ” as he like to say. Pascrell like many New Jersey politicians likes to blame the abject failure of state policies on the federal government .
Pascrell has represented his district since January 1997 and in that time there has been massive flight of people and businesses out of the “Garden State” for far greener pastures . New Jersey ranks at the top only in taxes and ranks near the bottom is business climate and quality of life . Perhaps he and his fellow New Jersey representatives could spend far more time on the problems in the state of New Jersey and less time grand standing and name calling .
We can’t afford to move but this means that we will never shop anywhere in Ridgewood again. Kings at least has its own parking. Our taxes have more than quadrupled in the time we have lived here. Now I assume they will quadruple again in the next 2 years. Ridgewood will soon be a town of only million dollar incomes because no-one making less will be able to afford to live here. Not only is the garage a financial disaster but the new apartments will require much more school space for all the children who will arrive with them. The quotes of”‘little or no children” were based on the one tall apartment building at the corner of Franklin and Maple. None of the garden apartments were surveyed at all. Why? Because children live in those. And, as someone said before, if you believe no children will fill those apartments, I have a nice bridge to sell you. Our council seems to have believed the hype that they will only be filled with hundreds of very very rich people who either have no children or are retired with a huge pension and who also don’t even have one car per apartment. I guess they were testers of the marijuana product before it comes on the open market. I hope they are planning to greatly increase the police budget because the garage and apartments will require many more police responses than we have police to cover the calls.
July 19,2018
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Trenton NJ, still dreaming, in what can only be described as a “hail mary” ,Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal today joined three other states in suing the Trump Administration over its $10,000 cap on the federal tax deduction for state and local taxes (SALT).
Joining New Jersey in suing both the Internal Revenue Service and the Treasury Department were New York, Connecticut and Maryland. The lawsuit seeks to prevent the federal government from enforcing the SALT deduction cap, and to have the cap declared invalid.
Governor Phil Murphy welcomed the action.
“What the Trump Administration enacted with the SALT deduction cap was nothing more than a tax hike on our working and middle-class families and seniors,” said Governor Murphy. “I made a commitment to New Jerseyans to provide long-term property tax relief when I signed legislation to preserve deductibility by enabling municipalities to create charitable funds. We will continue to fight to protect local taxpayers and businesses and I applaud Attorney General Grewal and the states of New York, Connecticut and Maryland for their leadership and action in challenging the constitutionality of this assault on our states.”
“Today we are making good on our promise to fight for New Jersey taxpayers – by taking legal action to protect our residents and restore fairness to the tax code,” said Attorney General Grewal. “Simply put, the federal government violated the constitution when it imposed new, arbitrary limits on the amount of state and local taxes that residents could deduct on their federal tax returns.”
In 2017, the Federal Government adopted a significant change to the federal tax code. Previously, taxpayers who itemized their deductions could deduct from their federal tax liability all money paid for state and local income, property and sales taxes. Under the new code, however, the same taxpayers are only permitted to claim a comparatively small deduction of up to $10,000 for those taxes.
The lawsuit filed today notes that the so-called SALT deduction on individual federal tax liability has historically been recognized by Congress as essential under the Constitution. “A SALT deduction has been a part of every federal income tax law since the first federal income tax was enacted in 1861,” the complaint explains.
The lawsuit adds that the SALT deduction is necessary to prevent federal taxes from interfering with each state’s right to determine its taxation and fiscal policies, because federal taxes crowd the states out of traditional revenue sources like income, property and sales taxes.
The suit asserts that the federal government’s “drastic” decision to cap the SALT deduction at $10,000 will significantly increase the federal tax liability for residents of each of the plaintiff states, including New Jersey. Homeowners who could once deduct the full cost of their local property taxes now can only deduct a fraction of those taxes. That will increase the cost of owning a home, which in turn will depress home values.
To make matters worse, the states explain, the federal government went after these states deliberately. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin even said, the point of the changes to the SALT deduction was to “send a message to the[se] state governments” that Washington wants them to change their spending policies. That effort to coerce states, the complaint notes, is another reason why the latest SALT changes are illegal.
Today’s joining of the federal lawsuit by Attorney General Grewal is the Attorney General’s latest action aimed at protecting New Jersey residents from oppressive new federal tax policies under the Trump Administration.
In May, Attorney General Grewal wrote the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) urging that it stop “playing politics” and drop its plan to enact a rule that would prevent New Jersey residents from claiming deductions for charitable contributions made to their local governments. Governor Phil Murphy had previously signed a law allowing residents to receive property tax credits for such charitable contributions.
June 9,2018
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, the group Fair Property Taxes for All New Jersey asks ,Have you attended your local school district’s finance meetings or reviewed your board of education’s budget for next year? If not, you may want to pay closer attention. On average, the largest portion of your property tax bill goes toward educational costs, meaning that your local school districts play a significant role in the amount of property taxes you pay annually.
In 2017, per student spending in NJ averaged $20,385 (14 of the most expensive school districts exceeded $30,000 p/p): fairpropertytaxesforallnewjersey.com
