January 10,2018
the staff of the Ridgewood
Ridgewood NJ, ,according to the Bergen Record ( https://www.northjersey.com/story/news/bergen/ridgewood/2018/01/09/20-m-prepaid-taxes/1007599001/ )the Village of Ridgewood received an astonishing $21.2 million from residents looking to prepay their 2018 property taxes in December of 2017.
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act signed by President Donald Trump on Dec. 22 now caps the amount of state and local taxes that can be deducted on federal income tax returns at $10,000. In a state where the average homeowner’s yearly property tax bill surpasses that number by almost $8,000, according to the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, residents headed to their local tax offices to try to pay by year’s end and deduct their 2018 property taxes from 2017’s federal taxes.
Ridgewood was not alone ,the Record reported that Montclair, residents jammed the coffers with $28 million and both Tenafly and Wayne saw more than $16 million each in prepayments.
Ridgewood Chief Financial Officer Robert Rooney told the Record that while Ridgewood’s $21.2 million total includes payments dating back to Dec. 1, $19 million of that was received within the last two weeks of the year, and $15 million in the three days after Christmas alone. Rooney added that the total payments in Ridgewood came from 3,500 separate transactions in a municipality where the average property tax bill is $17,180 per year.
Will the CFO invest in short term funds, what is that amount and how will it be reinvested into the community
be nice if the Village Council and BoE cut our municipal tax rates with the interest saved on the $21 million pre-payment…. won’t ever happen with this tax & spend happy bunch. Bernie’s never seen a tax hike she didn’t like, and Sue has her sons to pay for.
Calm down Debbie. Interest rates are virtually zero on short term investments, and every extra dollar is not an opportunity to spend.
10:29am good reply.
Windfall until when? If the money is spent unwisely or prematurely it will be transformed into a shortfall in one year’s time!
1) This is not a windfall, it is a prepayment. VERY different things.
2) 10:29 – One can make 1.25% risk free in the current environment. I would not call that 0.
Just send it the BOED. They get anyway.
9:27 so true about “tax and spend happy bunch”.
I haven’t seen ONE proposal from this council since they took oath, which suggests and intent to control expenses.
6:24 where can you get 1.25% “risk free” and don’t forget most of the prepayments were for taxes due Feb 1 and May 1, so there is not a lot of time for the money to be invested. But again I repeat where?
Invest it in munis and borrow from banks for working capital, easy peasy… 2 year treasury yield is almost 2%
Agreed 7:28, they’re all slap happy to spend other people’s money. No wonder property prices are falling, the shine is off this bunch
Maybe the FAC members could offer advice to the Village CFO on where to park prepaid taxes? Isn’t that their role, to offer unconflicted, non-binding advice to our Village Council? The CFO sits on this committee, what say he?
the FAC was closed down, most members had NO experience in finance
memo to 11:24
December 31st to February 1 is not 2 years.
December 31st to May 1 is not 2 years.
December 31st to August 1 is not 2 years.
December 31st to November 1 is not 2 years.
Additionally munis are not risk free and what rate do you think the bank is going to charge.
Hopefully your comment was so incredibly stupid it was actually just sarcasm and I didn’t notice.
Wow Ridgewood taxpayer, let’s hope you don’t serve on the Council. You sound like Bernie, who never met a 4%~6% annual municipal tax increase she didn’t vote “yes” for… god help us. In addition to tax revenues and fees, the Village funds itself through general obligation debt and different maturities of municipal debt, like the $22 million six-year muni authorised in the 2017 budget. Short term working capital should be funded through bank lines of credit given the Village is a very good credit. This is precisely why the FAC was originally formed, to help the Village CFO and the neophytes on the Council with expert financial advice. It’s a shame it became so politicised, which was NOT the intended outcome. I guess you’d rather see the Village spend any interest gained from the early payment on whatever self-serving projects you are pushing, which are?!?!!
Shame the FAC became so politicised. That was never the original intention. If you read the original report, it was set up to leverage the financial experience and expertise of Ridgewood residents to offer non-binding expert financial advice to the Council members on the $45 million Village budget, contract negotiations/CBAs, and funding for capital improvements to benefit all Villagers. Instead it became a hot potato of political retribution for the current Council and the previous Mayor and Village Manager. Happy to discuss this with you James over a cigar; it’s Bernie and Sue (and Killion and Riche behind them) that are so against the idea, because a properly vetted FAC might actually question some of the tax increases, building purchases, ballooning debt issuance, and all of the contract giveaways to favored friends they’ve been pushing for… ask why Ridgewood property prices have been declining over the past 12 months versus euphoric markets in NYC, Tenafly, Summit, Weschester, Greenwich, etc, etc… we have a self-serving, pet issue majority on the Governing body who are willing to spend other people’s money with no serious questions or thought. It’s a damn shame.
it was always Aronsohns intention
Well it wasn’t the intention of the people who wrote the initial report….
Happy to discuss over a cigar
sounds like a plan
6:24… you’re right. Even a money mkt acct can provide about 17-20k a month in interest with no risk…. yeah its peanuts in the big picture but still in this environment getting an extra 5 figures cashflow per month can’t hurt.
A true Financial Advisory Committee with only members who have real financial backgrounds would have been a big help in the past. They would,hopefully, have been able to predict the absolute boondoggle that the Health Barn has become and prevented that massive give-a-way from happening. They might have also had the forethought and financial ability to show the Council that just because it is old, it is not historic, and prevented the preservation of the piece of junk that is called the Schedler house. Unfortunately it became a private kitty for its’ members desires and not for the good of the Village. Accepting the help of the resident who volunteered could be a good start, along with others of similar mindset. Our council members individually are each great in what they offer–but there is an extreme lack of a well rounded body of people. A true FAC should certainly help.