Did Your Taxes Go Up Almost $4000?

[NJCher]

Mine did, just in this year.

Here's how:

a) property taxes were raised on my home $161 a month, which is $1920 a year.

b) Chris Christie nixed the homestead rebate program, so there goes around $1800, which is what people who made under 75gs a year could get.

That's $3720, pretty close to four grand.

And excuse me if I'm not excited about the 2 per cent cap on property taxes. They did nothing to halt the increasing costs to pensions and health benefits, so you know as well as I do that the towns will simply make it up in fees and fines. There will be more nitpicky traffic stops and more stupid regulations that interfere with our right to a relatively hassle-free existence.

Example: I got a fine this year of $100 for having construction materials on my property. Excuse me but it was the worst winter in history (as declared by NJ's chief meteorologist) and it started in mid-October and ended in a very wet spring with no time for construction workers to get anything done. I purchased the material one day before the first storm. I showed the judge the receipt but he didn't care. I also showed records of all the storms. None of this mattered. All that mattered is they were able to collect more money.


Cher

[rfranklin]

1. Yes, I have noticed increasing numbers of cops lurking...

behind bushes and around curves with radar and laser guns, trying to boost municipal revenues.

[independentpiney]

2. I didn't get hit as bad as you- $2300

Property taxes went up $300 a quarter and I normally got $1100 on the homestead rebate. And with no COLA for ssdi and still falling home prices, it's put me in a bad financial situation with dwindling options.

[Glassunion]

3. Taxes were the main reason I left in 06...

Bought a shitty house in 1996. Taxes were $1,890 a year.
Moved out of shitty house in 2006. Taxes were $3,980.
If I stayed one more year, the shitty house would have cost me $4,230.

I bought the home from the VA, and during the time that the VA held the loan I qualified for for the Homstead Rebate. But when the VA sold the loan to another lender in 2002, I suddenly woke up not qualifying for the rebate. As the new lender was making payments in lieu of tax to the municipality on the property, and it was not a conventional loan (installment contract). No tax payments, no rebate and I was making less than half of the 75K requirement.

The major jumps in property taxes were from new homes being built in the area. Since the new homeowners did not want to send their kids to school with the shitty kids(folks from my neighborhood), they had new schools built, new teachers hired, the school district split and we had to share the burden. On top of that we needed more police and other services.

I got the f' out. Now I have a home that is worth 4x what my last house was, and I pay $2,100 in property taxes in one of the best school districts in PA. I win. Yay me! I'm gonna have a cookie.

Good luck in NJ. It has to turn around sometime.

[Madam Mossfern]

4. Would you prefer a cut in services?

Just what would you be willing to give up?
Healthcare and pension costs for municipalities are sky high, and they got there through binding arbitration. The State cut their monies to municipalities and schools. It has to come from somewhere.

[Glassunion]

5. Actually you can keep all of the services and maybe add some more. But the task would be impossible.

Just cut the 50+ years of corruption out of the state.

The state would be operating in the black within 4.76 seconds, give or take...

[prodigals0n]

6. I'd prefer

everyone pay their share. Especially when we have a demagogue like Chris Christie calling for "shared sacrifice."

I'm willing and have given up plenty but I don't believe it should all come from middle class people like me or the poor. All we've received from Chris Christie so far is drastic service cuts, higher costs, higher taxes, and a governor who spends most of his time on his 2012 campaign tour.

We live in a time of the greatest disproportion in wealth since the Great Depression and the economic results are the same. We can ill afford a governor in New Jersey whose sole idea is cut everything while giving tax breaks to millionaires who already control more earnings and wealth than at any time since the Great Depression.

Chris Christie has higher political aspirations and an agenda we've already suffered under for far too long. Everything he does is goal oriented. He doesn't give a damn about New Jersey or its people. He's being packaged the same way George W. Bush was packaged and that is no coincidence.

Just my first post 2$ worth. (Inflation -- everything costs more here in NJ)

[prodigals0n]

7. My property taxes went up over 22% this year alone

And all thanks to one person only, Governor Chris Christie.

[ramapo]

8. Not quite

My property taxes went up about $1500. Over 27 years my taxes have gone from $1800 to $16000+ a year. Granted we remodeled and expanded the house but we actually had a very modest increase from that. Ever since Christie Whitman "cut" state taxes, my local taxes have gone up year in and year out.

School administrative costs are outrageous, police salaries ar ridiculous, every two-bit town has to spend millions on fire equipment to play with instead of there being some rational regionalization. Of course nobody wants to give up ANY service so on and on it goes.