Mark and Ruth Nicolich
West Amwell
Gov. Chris Christie has been complaining about the 4.1 percent 2010 property tax increase from 2009. He blames the Corzine administration because it happened on Gov. Jon Corzine’s watch. But the governor has the wrong number.
The 4.1 percent is the change in the average dollars in property tax paid by homeowners. It is the wrong number. It is wrong because property tax is based on the value of the home. The more valuable the home the higher the total tax dollars within any community. What is important is the tax rate, which is how many dollars are you taxed for every dollar value of your home. If you put an addition on your home the value increases and the dollars you pay in property tax also increase.
What should be considered is the State Tax Rate, or the total dollars collected in taxes divided by the total value of the homes. The state calls this the Current Year Total Tax Rate. During the “Corzine years,” this rate dropped from 2.65 percent in 2007 to 2.54 percent in 2010. This is a 4.2 percent decrease in the tax rate.
The governor’s complaining about an increase in average property tax dollars is like the man who gets a $8,000 raise in salary and complains because his income tax payment increases by $500.
We want to thank the teachers of New Jersey who taught us how to think correctly about numbers.
The data can be found at the NJ Community Affairs, division of local government services website http://www.nj.gov/dca/lgs/taxes/taxmenu.shtml#Hist.

