On July 7, WKXW-FM posted a news story on its website which reported that state legislators may be in session in Trenton during the traditional summer break.
The news story contained a quote from the speaker of the state Assembly, Vincent Prieto (D-Hudson). Prieto is one of our state’s highest ranking elected officials.
The radio station’s news article contained the following two paragraphs:
“Another perennial work in progress is addressing New Jersey’s high property taxes. The speaker (Prieto) said he hopes to explore that crucial issue over the next few months.
“ ‘I’ve said it time and time again – they were the highest when I got here 10 years ago and we have to do something about it. First in the nation in property taxes is not acceptable so we have to do a better job as legislators and do the tough things,’ Prieto said.”
Have you looked at your property tax bill lately? Have you noticed that most of what you pay in property taxes does not go to the municipality or to the county in which you reside?
Take a good look at the bill. Depending on the community in which you live, you will see that what you pay in school taxes accounts for between about 60 percent and 75 percent of the total property tax bill.
The amount you pay in property taxes to support your municipality and your county is peanuts compared to what you pay to support your local schools.
The primary reason for the over-reliance on property taxes to support schools in our region of New Jersey is because the state Supreme Court has consistently ruled that the majority (about 60 percent) of the state aid that is distributed to school districts must go to about 30 allegedly “poor” districts.
Here are the school districts that are gifted the majority of state aid: Pleasantville, Garfield, Burlington City, Pemberton Township, Camden City, Gloucester City, Bridgeton, Millville, Vineland, East Orange, Irvington, Newark, Orange, Harrison, Hoboken, Jersey City, Union City, West New York, Trenton, New Brunswick, Perth Amboy, Asbury Park, Keansburg, Long Branch, Neptune Township, Passaic City, Paterson, Salem City, Elizabeth, Plainfield and Phillipsburg.
The other 550 or so school districts in New Jersey split the remaining 40 percent of the state aid pie, otherwise known as the crumbs. If a local school district (i.e., the Marlboro School District, the Jackson School District, the Millstone Township School District) received additional state funding, it could raise less money through property taxes to support itself. As a result, your property tax bill would be lower.
The sad fact of the matter, however, is that without a change of justices on the state’s highest court, there is little if anything Prieto or anyone else in the Assembly can do about high property taxes in the communities in which our papers circulate.
If our legislators try to change the allotment of school state aid they will be sued by advocates for the “poor” districts and most likely lose the case in the state Supreme Court.
The probable outcome renders Prieto’s statement that “… we have to do a better job as legislators and do the tough things” meaningless unless he has a way to change the makeup of the state Supreme Court.
Gov. Chris Christie understands the problem and he has tried to change the makeup of the Supreme Court, but he has been blocked by Democrats.
I know there are Republican legislators from Monmouth and Ocean counties who understand exactly what the problem is with property taxes. They know the solution needs to be a more equitable distribution of school state aid.
Here is the formula, simply stated: The more state aid a school district receives, the less that district will have to collect in property taxes. The less they collect in property taxes, the more money you save.
I extend an offer to Prieto to describe the “tough things” that need to be done to lower New Jersey’s property taxes.
For the most part, your municipal and county governments control their spending (or do not control spending, depending on your view of the situation).
Your property taxes in Monmouth and Ocean counties are not going in any direction except up unless and until the distribution of state school aid is made more equitable. Prieto need not spend his summer in Trenton unless he and his colleagues can address that problem. Mark Rosman is a managing editor with Greater Media Newspapers. He may be reached at gmntnews@gmnews.com.