file photo by Boyd Loving
Jun 6, 2017
We have just held a primary election for governor in New Jersey, as well as for many legislative, county and local seats.
This is a time to reflect upon the property tax problems of the state of New Jersey, and I felt it would be a good time to write about some of my thoughts in this area.
I have my own view of what makes government so expensive in New Jersey versus other states from the bottom up.
I’ve had the opportunity to look extensively at municipal government services and costs, as well as those of county government. I’ve had the opportunity also to compare municipalities and counties here in New Jersey against those in other states in a benchmarking sense.
I preface these comments with the reminder that about 70 percent or 75 percent of your local property taxes are school taxes. I do not have significant experience in this area, so my comments are focused on municipal and county government structures and costs.
If you think about it, property taxes are by their very nature an anachronism. Most persons living on a piece of land today do not produce revenue from the land itself, as we did when we were an agrarian society in the 1600s and 1700s, when this system was created. Yes, it is that old. In fact, I think feudal societies worked similarly as well.