New Jersey Real Estate Report

From the Star Ledger NJ Voices Blog:

Property taxes the major concern for N.J. voters despite political affiliation

Route 78 cuts through New Jersey. More accurately, it cuts through the many New Jerseys.

Every dozen or so miles, the towns off the highway sit like still portraits of time and place; museum dioramas of vastly different scenery, architecture and lifestyle.

All are New Jersey; from hills over the Musconetcong Valley, to the ridges of the Watchungs, to the flatlands of the Newark Basin. All are home; from the simple mill houses in rural Stewartville to the planned mini-manses of The Hills, to the oldish manors of North Summit, to the new three families in the South Ward of Newark.

West to east, from rural to suburban to urban, the counties of Route 78 are political microcosms of greater New Jersey. Out west, rural and suburban Warren, Hunterdon and Somerset go Republican red. To the east, Union and Essex go Democratic blue. But today, purple was in the air as voters in all these places shared one major concern.

Property taxes.

From the Press of Atlantic City:

Christie’s tough task

Voters on Tuesday wanted change - they wanted it enough to overcome New Jersey’s powerful Democratic Party organization and elect Republican Chris Christie as the next governor of the state.

The victory in many ways was surprising. While Christie was ahead in the polls for months, his lead eroded after Gov. Jon S. Corzine poured huge amounts of his personal wealth into the campaign, much of it for negative advertising. Democratic superstars - including President Barack Obama - made multiple visits to New Jersey on Corzine’s behalf.

But this election was not about Obama. It was about Corzine - and the entrenched problems of New Jersey that he has not been able to solve.

Now, for Christie, the really tough job starts.

From the NY Post:

Jersey voters dump Corzine for Christie

Chris Christie last night became the first Republican to be elected governor of New Jersey in more than a decade — a stunning triumph that came just days after President Obama put his prestige on the line and visited the Garden State to urge voters to re-elect Democrat Jon Corzine.

With 99 percent of precincts reporting, Christie, a former US attorney who pledged to cut the state’s enormous tax burden, had 49 percent of the vote over Corzine’s 45 percent.
…
“This election was and is about the future of the state of New Jersey,” Christie said last night in a victory speech at the Parsippany Hilton.

“Tomorrow, together, we begin to take back New Jersey. Tomorrow we will fix this broken state.”

To cheers, he vowed to “pick up Trenton and turn it upside down.”

Thought this was obvious, especially since the average home price is over a million. Hard to swallow an argument about a “poor homeowner” who can’t afford taxes when you are talking about Millburn. How about you sell the house and move a town over? You’d probably make a fortune doing it too.

From the Star Ledger:

Millburn residents suffer under property taxes that are highest in N.J., nation

The little pond in Taylor Park here was once the town swimming hole.

Today, the town pool at Gero Park has a water slide in the big pool, a waterfall umbrella in the wading pool, and a snack bar. The tennis courts there are lit at night, and there is a roller hockey rink. Nearby is a par 3 golf course. Millburn’s tax dollars at work.

Like many New Jersey towns, Millburn’s schools, services and recreation have grown exponentially during the past few decades, much of it paid for by property taxes. In Millburn, the average homeowner pays $18,159 a year in property taxes.

“We’re the highest town in the highest state, so that must mean we’re the highest in the nation,” said Tom Thomas, a formermayor and member of the Old Guard, which meets every Thursday in an old civic center next to the pond.

Yes, New Jersey’s property taxes are the nation’s highest. It is government’s sustenance: Property taxes account for 45 percent of all tax revenue raised in New Jersey. The national average is 29 percent.

Some say high property taxes have turned into a terminal disease for the state. High taxes and high home prices are conspiring to drive people out, which, in time, will flat-line New Jersey’s real estate values — if it hasn’t already. New Jersey: First in property taxes, near first in resident exits. Since 2000, the state lost 163,000 households and $12.8 billion in gross income.
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Even this may not help senior citizens in high-end towns, where property values drive taxes upwards into the $25,000 to $40,000 range.

“This is especially prevalent among seniors, who are finding it difficult to stay in their homes in New Jersey,” Moran said.
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The high taxes are linked by formula to property values. Millburn’s average home price, which is $1,088,148, but many seniors don’t want to cash out. They want to stay.

From the NY Times:

As Property Taxes Become a Real Burden, Can Backlash Be Far Off?

The list from census data isn’t all that surprising, but there it is.

Westchester County, No. 1. Nassau, No. 2. Hunterdon and Bergen in New Jersey, Nos. 3 and 4, respectively.

And so it goes. Of the 10 counties in the country with the highest median property taxes, every one is in New York or New Jersey.
…
This, as anyone who breathes oxygen knows, is a high-tax region. But as Richard Nathan packed up his office on Friday after 45 years of studying or participating in state, local and federal tax and budget policies, he wondered if we had finally reached a breaking point.

“I’m a little surprised there hasn’t been more heat and more agitation about tax caps and tax burdens in the way there has been in other parts of the country,” said Dr. Nathan, who retired as co-director of the Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government at the State University of New York at Albany. “I keep thinking, ‘When is this dog going to bark?’ And the numbers make you think it’s going to be soon. It just feels different right now.”
…
“It’s the No. 1 issue,” he said. “People have reached their breaking point. But we still have a long way to go in connecting the dots between dysfunction in state government and high property taxes.”

Still, breaking point or not, who knows where this goes? A Proposition 13-style temper tantrum? Painful cuts — meaning teachers and police? Throw out the bums — most likely Democrats, who could be fat targets in an antitax backlash? Lots of grumbling but living with an increasingly unaffordable status quo?

From the Philly Inquirer:

Homeowners are challenging property-tax assessments at a record rate

With the ebbing of the real estate market, a record-bursting tide of property-tax appeals is inundating assessment offices all over the region - and the nation - with appeal numbers double and triple what they were last year.

What is happening locally “is a microcosm of the whole country,” said John Garippa, a New Jersey tax lawyer and president of the American Property Tax Counsel in Chicago. “It’s an incredible, incredible number of appeals.”

New Jersey has smashed records for county-level and court filings, he said. Camden County’s 1,260 appeals were triple last year’s. More than 14,000 were filed in Ocean County, and with an April 1 appeal deadline, the county typically wraps up hearings during the summer; this year, they will be lapping into November.
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The assessment offices are in the recessionary cross-fire because, of all the major levies, real estate is the only one that a taxpayer can fight. Wage, sales, and head taxes are immutable, but a property-tax bill is arguable.

The tax bill is based on the assessment - the portion of market value that is subject to taxation. And if a property owner can demonstrate that the true market value is less than the assessors’ estimate, the tax bill can be lowered.

With property values sagging, the appeals business is surging. It’s not surprising that the Garden State’s appeals would be off the charts, said Jerry Cantrell, president of the New Jersey Taxpayers Association, because the state’s real estate levy is among the nation’s highest. “It hits everybody,” Cantrell said.

If the big driver in New Jersey is the sheer magnitude of the bills, the tax matrix is a tad more complicated in Pennsylvania.
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Tax experts think that with values continuing to fall, the appeals business will continue to rise.
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Said Sharkey: “I think next year is going to be worse.”

From the Vineland Daily Journal:

Property taxes are stealing our way of life

New Jersey’s property tax system is broken. But you already know that.

What is not well known is that property taxes promote disparities among economic and racial groups. Those who miss tax payments are almost instantly pushed deep into debt.

The system punishes the poor and middle class, yet offers corporations and the super-rich vast tax break opportunities.

It is an archaic tax that preserves New Jersey’s fragmented system of government — 566 municipalities, 605 school districts, and more than 400 other local taxing authorities. That’s the most per square mile of any state.

It is a tax driven by runaway local government spending, political paralysis at all levels by both parties and patchwork budget remedies.

And it is a tax that ultimately hurts you.
…
Although New Jersey governors and legislators have talked about reform for the past half-century, little has been done to correct the vast inequities of the property tax system.

With the deepest recession in 70 years forcing thousands of people out of jobs, and hammering countless others, property taxes have become the No. 1 issue voters want addressed by the gubernatorial candidates this election year, according to Monmouth University/ Gannett New Jersey polls.
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New Jersey’s tax system is dysfunctional because it deters job growth and long-term economic planning, said Joseph Henchman, director of state programs for the Washington-based Tax Foundation, which has studied state tax policies since 1937.

“There is no bright spot in New Jersey,” he said. “Most Americans gripe about property taxes, but New Jersey residents genuinely have a broken property tax system.”
…
There is no end in sight for the nation’s highest average annual property tax, which was $7,045 per household last year.

At the current pace, the average homeowner will see a $9,200 tax bill by 2015, $10,000 by 2017.

This is happening in a state in which the economy is stalled and the median household income dropped 10 percent — about $7,200 — from 2006 to 2008.
…
But the trouble for many homeowners is that the property tax has no heart.

It is a tax based on what your town says your property is worth, not your income.

If you lose your job, if you fall ill, if your stock market nest egg evaporates or if some other financial calamity befalls you, you at least will get a break from the income tax because you’ll drop into a lower income bracket.

There is no such break with property taxes. A $7,000 bill is still due regardless of your income or financial straits. Miss a couple tax payments and you could find your dream home on the market in a tax-lien sale.
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“What’s happening in this recession … is people are very hard pressed to pay the highest property taxes in the nation,” said Joseph J. Seneca, a professor at Rutgers University’s Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, who has studied New Jersey’s economy for decades. “You have understandable frustration. … As a percentage of income, the burden gets higher and higher.”

From the WSJ:

New Jersey Moves Up The Property Tax Charts

New Jersey, infamous for having some of the highest property taxes in the U.S., is only getting more so. The state has inched its way up on a list of places with steep taxes as a slice of home value.

That move, reported in new census data, reflects that property taxes overall remain steepest in the Northeast and a few other pockets of the U.S.

Gerald Prante, an economist at The Tax Foundation in Washington who has written about the data based on the 2008 American Community Survey, says New Jersey is second from the top on the list of states with high median real estate taxes divided by median home value - up from fifth on that list in 2007. (Texas remains at the top).

The change seems largely due to New Jersey home values dropping, according to Prante.

As if that isn’t distinction enough, New Jersey continues as the overall property tax champ: It again tops the list of states with highest property tax by dollar amount. Right behind it are Connecticut, New Hampshire, New York and Rhode Island.

On the other end of the spectrum are Tennessee, New Mexico, Kentucky and Oklahoma, which have some of the lowest taxes.

In New Jersey, median real estate taxes paid in 2008 were $6,320; in Connecticut, $4,603; in New Hampshire, $4,501; and New York, $3,622, according to the data.

Strikingly lower are the numbers in states at the bottom of the list: In Louisiana, for example, which ranked 50th, median taxes were $188. In Tennessee, the figure was $924; in New Mexico, $843; in Kentucky, $823; and Oklahoma, $762.
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In the Northeast, high property tax states also have high per capita income. In fact, the highest property tax bills are usually found where incomes are highest, according to Prante.

That is borne out by new data on counties where taxes are high. New York’s Westchester County topped the list, with a median of $8,890, followed by Nassau, also in New York, with $8,628, and Hunterdon, in New Jersey, with $8,492.

From Bloomberg:

New Jersey, New York Taxes Are Worst for Business, Study Says

New Jersey and New York are the worst of the 50 U.S. states for business because of their tax burdens, a study by the Tax Foundation says.

The two ranked 50th and 49th respectively in the analysis of state personal, corporate, sales, property and unemployment- insurance taxes in the year that ended June 30. The study, released today by the Washington, D.C.-based institute, said South Dakota and Wyoming, which have no corporate or individual income taxes, have the best business climates.

As tax receipts fell in the economic recession, U.S. states faced a combined $165 billion shortage in revenue for the fiscal year that started for most on July 1. New Jersey and New York boosted personal tax rates to help close their gaps.
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New Jersey’s corporate income tax is an impediment to business because of its low threshold — $100,000 — and because the state doesn’t index corporate brackets for inflation, according to the study.

New Jersey was also among states that enacted “disproportionately high” tax rates on personal income, the study found. Maryland was first to move in that direction in 2007 with a new top rate of 6.35 percent on couples with incomes over $1 million, the study reported.
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Property taxes also pulled down the rankings of New Jersey and New York. Residents of New York’s Westchester and Nassau counties, outside New York City, paid the highest property tax bills in 2008, a separate study by the Heritage Foundation, released today, showed. New Jersey’s Hunterdon and Bergen counties were next.
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Westchester had the biggest median property tax bill on the U.S. list, at $8,890, the study said. Hunterdon residents paid $8,492.

Among the states, New Jersey ranked first with a $6,320 median property tax bill, said the study, based on U.S. Census Bureau data. States with the lowest median real-estate taxes were Louisiana, $188; Alabama, $383, and West Virginia, $457.

“States with the best tax systems will be the most competitive in attracting new businesses,” Padgitt said in his report. “Companies will locate where they have the greatest competitive advantage.”

From the Philly Inquirer:

Moody’s offers mixed economic outlook for N.J.

When Moody’s Investors Service released a mixed report on New Jersey’s financial outlook last week, Republicans seized the opportunity to argue that the state’s financial glass was half empty. Democrats saw it as half full.

Both sides are motivated, in part, by the intense governor’s race, but each perspective has validity.

The credit rating helps to determine how much interest the state will pay to borrow money for capital projects, although the markets do not always act in the way that a credit rating would seem to suggest.

Moody’s reaffirmed New Jersey’s rating for a $200 million school-construction bond issue expected this week, but also revised its “outlook” on the state’s general-obligation bonds from stable to negative.

John Cline, vice president for rating communications for Moody’s, said a negative outlook means the agency believes there is a 50 percent or greater chance that the credit rating will decline in the next 12 to 18 months.

The Corzine administration jumped on the fact that Moody’s had maintained the state’s credit rating, in the face of a grueling recession.

“The affirmation of New Jersey’s credit rating by all three rating agencies is a sign of confidence in Gov. Corzine’s overall handling of fiscal matters in these historically challenging economic times,” Treasury spokesman Tom Vincz said.

In addition to Moody’s, Fitch and S&P also recently affirmed their ratings of the state’s credit, Vincz said. S&P’s outlook for New Jersey remains “stable.”

Republicans took the opposite view, focusing on Moody’s change in outlook for New Jersey.

“It strains credulity to greet a critical report by claiming it is good news and refusing to address any of the report’s underlying concerns,” said Senate Republican Leader Tom Kean, of Union County. “Gov. Corzine is deluding himself and the taxpayers if he refuses to acknowledge an $8 billion structural deficit, much less do anything about it.”
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Moody’s was critical, for example, of state use of nonrecurring revenues to fill budget gaps, “leaving the state with a sizable structural imbalance.”
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Moody’s also pointed to the state’s high debt burden, low pension-funding ratio, and high post-retirement health-insurance liabilities as contributing factors to the change in outlook.

Like some other comparably rated states, the report said, New Jersey has depleted its reserves during the recession, which would leave the state in a tough spot if revenues came in lower than expected.

Moody’s also anticipates New Jersey will recover more slowly from the recession than the country as a whole because several of the state’s key industries, including financial services and pharmaceuticals, have been hit hard.

From the NYT the local Blog:

An Appeal for a Better Real Estate Tax System

Property taxes in New Jersey are the highest in the nation by percent of a homeowner’s income and by just about any other measure.

In my 23 years of living in two different houses in South Orange, I have lodged a total of five tax appeals. I succeeded in the first four and believe I will succeed in the fifth, which I just argued on
July 14 in East Orange at the Essex County Board of Taxation [.pdf].

In essence, if I prove that my house is grossly overvalued compared to comparable sales before October 1, 2008, then I will save a hefty amount on the taxes I pay for tax year 2009.

The very fact that I have had meritorious grounds to file five appeals tells me that the tax system is not really “fair “ and “equalized,” even though government officials and appraisal company representatives might intend it to be.

I have seen entire blocks that were under-assessed. I have also seen houses that were over-assessed, where year after year the government collected substantially more revenue than it would have received had the homeowner challenged the assessment.

As a self-taught participant in the tax appeal system I have learned that the bigger question underlying this system is: Is this the fairest and best way to raise money for our state and local governments? This political hot potato has been tossed back and forth in New Jersey without resolution.

From the Courier Post:

N.J. faces $10B deficit next year, report says

New Jersey faces a projected budget deficit of $8 billion in its next fiscal year, as well as a shortfall of more than $2 billion in its unemployment compensation fund, a report said Tuesday.

The independent Office of Legislative Services estimated the shortfall at the request of Senate Republicans — and GOP office-holders greeted the $10-billion figure with calls for a special legislative session to address state finances.
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David Rosen, the OLS’ budget and finance officer, in April told lawmakers the state was facing the worst revenue plunge in “modern history.”

Tuesday’s estimate predicted the unemployment compensation fund’s deficit would rise from $2.2 billion to $3.5 billion over the course of fiscal year 2011.

The gloomy projection came just weeks after Corzine signed a $29 billion budget that initially faced a deficit estimated at $6 billion.

When he signed the budget, Corzine noted it was nearly $4 billion smaller than the spending plan enacted for the previous year.

From Bloomberg:

N.J. Faces $8 Billion Budget Deficit, Forecaster Says

New Jersey faces a projected deficit of $8 billion next fiscal year, even after cutting $4 billion of spending and raising taxes this year to close a budget gap, the nonpartisan Office of Legislative Services said.

The state would need $2.5 billion in fiscal 2011 to fully fund pension contributions and will lose $1.6 billion of federal stimulus money, David Rosen, the office’s chief budget analyst, said in a July 20 memo to Senate Minority Leader Tom Kean. It also faces $1.1 billion in expiring tax increases, Rosen said.

Rosen predicted a total of $8.8 billion in spending growth and revenue losses, which would be offset by an $800 million increase in collections from major taxes including those on sales, personal income and corporations. “This figure represents growth below normal growth rates, but would be the first year of growth following two years of decline,” he wrote.

The office’s projection comes about three weeks after Governor Jon Corzine signed a $29 billion budget for fiscal 2010, which began July 1. That plan trimmed spending the most in state history while raising taxes on cigarettes, wine, liquor and the wealthy to close a deficit of $8.8 billion.

From Bloomberg:

Tax-Weary New Jersey Residents May Reject More School Budgets

New Jersey residents may reject a greater percentage of school budgets than last year when they go to the polls today amid dissatisfaction with rising property taxes that are already the nation’s highest.

Schools represent the largest portion of the real-estate tax bill in New Jersey, where the average levy exceeded $7,000 last year from about $4,100 a decade ago. Citizens in more than 90 percent of the state’s 603 districts have the chance to vote on schools’ annual spending plans.

A year ago, 74 percent of school budgets were approved in an election that drew 14 percent of voters. The last time fewer than half of spending plans passed was 1976. The threat of higher taxes may draw more people to the ballot box to vote “no” in a year when residents are already coping with rising unemployment and foreclosures, plunging stock values and a state budget that proposes other tax increases.

“The school districts are aware of the financial conditions out there,” said Frank Belluscio, a spokesman for the New Jersey School Boards Association. “We’re going to have a drop off of approvals from last year, but a majority should pass.”

Most of New Jersey’s school districts must have budgets approved by voters every April. Planned spending this year is largely flat or anticipates a less than 4 percent increase, because educators understand that voters’ personal finances have deteriorated, Belluscio said.

“If there’s going to be a year when we’re going to see a major number of them rejected, I would expect it to be this year,” said Jerry Cantrell, president of the New Jersey Taxpayers Association, an anti-tax group. “New Jersey is a state that has been majorly impacted by the fiscal downturn.”

From the Philly Inquirer:

New Jersey faces “historic” tax-revenue drop

New Jersey is facing a “historic tax-revenue collapse” that could leave the state with a $100 million deficit by the end of the next fiscal year.

That was the assessment of Budget and Finance Officer David Rosen of the nonpartisan Office of Legislative Services, who presented his findings to the Senate budget committee yesterday.

“New Jersey finds itself in the most significant revenue downturn in its modern history,” Rosen said.

Rosen projected that New Jersey would bring in $606 million less in revenue than previously anticipated by the Corzine administration from the current fiscal year through the end of the next on June 30, 2010.

If that estimate holds true, the state would be forced to make more spending cuts or increase revenue to balance the budget, as required by the state constitution.

Rosen said that only twice in the last four decades did the state’s revenue decline from one year to the next. Revenue declined 2.1 percent in fiscal 1975 and 1.9 percent in 2002, he said.

The Office of Legislative Services estimates that revenue for the current fiscal year, which ends June 30, will drop 11 percent from the previous year. For fiscal 2010, OLS projects a decrease of 3.7 percent.

Declining income, sales, and corporate tax revenues helped fuel the projections.
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State Treasurer David Rousseau, who addressed the Senate budget committee yesterday afternoon, noted that a difference of $600 million over two years of state revenues amounted to less than 1 percent. But he acknowledged that the difference, if accurate, would affect the budget.

Rousseau said the administration would adjust revenue estimates downward if warranted.

“This administration continues to work to find every dollar of savings we can, and we will not shirk our responsibility to provide additional recommendations to balance the [fiscal 2009 and 2010] budgets if further revenue reductions are warranted,” Rousseau said.

Rousseau is slated to present new revenue figures in late May, which will include critical April tax collections.

From the Jersey Journal:

MAYOR CAN’T HANDLE TRUTH IN ADVERTISING

Mayor Dave Roberts pulled out the political big guns yesterday to take down a billboard that offended him.

Jersey City real estate firm Metropolitan & Waterfront Residential Brokerage paid for the billboard outside the Hoboken PATH station that read: “Cut your Hoboken property taxes 47%. We’ll help you leave.”

The sign, which was up for only a day, referenced Hoboken’s state takeover and subsequent massive tax hike. The overall property tax rate for Hoboken property owners increased 47 percent for the fiscal year that ends June 30. The municipal tax rate rose 84 percent.

After hearing from Roberts and others, Jaime LeFrak - a principal of the LeFrak Organization and a Jersey City waterfront developer who has a one-third interest in Metropolitan & Waterfront - ordered the billboard removed, a process he said would take about a week.

But Roberts was not about to wait that long.

The mayor called NJ Transit “several” times yesterday and the agency removed the billboard from its property last night.

“It’s outrageous they’re trying to use this as a marketing tool, which is totally inappropriate. Now we have a developer from Jersey City mocking our situation?” said Roberts.
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“I received friendly requests from other people who kindly asked us to think of a different advertising campaign and we obliged,” said LeFrak.

“We don’t legally have to take it down, but we’re nice guys and if someone asks you in nice way to do something as a friend we’ll do it.”

Roberts said he and LeFrak had a heated exchange.

“I would not tolerate it if a Hoboken developer started printing the murder rate in Jersey City - that kind of advertising would be despicable,” said the mayor.

From the Record:

Towns to lose more than $32M in state aid, Corzine says

The Corzine administration was the bearer of bad news again today when it told towns they will lose more than $32 million in state aid next year.

Towns whose residents make less money and have a heavier tax burden are slightly cushioned by the blow. Mu­nicipalities with higher incomes and lower taxes will be hurt the most.

Governor Corzine said he made awards “in a manner that’s consis­tent with need” and using a “formula that is reflective of the property tax burdens and the wealth” of towns. The Corzine administration cre­ated a sliding scale for aid per town based on the average income residents earn and taxes they pay. That means towns with high taxes and residents with less money — such as Passaic and Paterson — will not lose any aid.

And municipalities with higher incomes that pay lower taxes will get 5 percent less than last year. For example, in 2008 Franklin Lakes Borough received more than $2 million in aid and this year they will get $101,000 less.

“This is new ground, I don’t recall there being municipal funding that was based on that kind of formula,” said Bill Dressel, executive director of the League of Municipalities

Some big losers are:

Hoboken -$604,890
Morris Township -$178,529
Westfield -$167,283
Livingston -$160,878
Summit -$156,020
Holmdel -$135,345
Montclair -$127,669
Millburn -$126,871
Bernards -$120,511
Colts Neck -$112,740
Montville -$112,548
Franklin Lakes -$101,845
Ridgewood -$101,639

From the Record:

Property taxes by the numbers

Residential property taxes in New Jersey rose by just 3.7 percent last year but topped $7,000 for the first time, a new state report says.

The increase in property taxes is the lowest in at least a decade, and is below Gov. Jon Corzine’s 4 percent cap instituted through a special session on property tax reforms in 2006.

The data released by the state Department of Community Affairs, covering every municipality in the state, shows the average property tax bill rose $249, to $7,045.

In budget documents released today, the Corzine administration showcased the 3.7 percent increase, saying it shows “the stabilizing effect of the governor’s policies” after increases as high as 6.8 percent in 2006.

If the rate had remained the same as the past five years, the documents say, “last year’s statewide average tax bill would have been $193 higher.” There were 266 towns last year in which average bills rose 4 percent or less, according to the budget summaries released today by the Treasury Department.

Still, New Jersey property taxes have now increased by 55 percent since 2000, according to the latest data. Republicans were unimpressed by the new figures, which come amid a fiery debate over the property tax plans in Corzine’s proposed budget for next year.

From the Record:

Budget could deal middle-class homeowners a painful double whammy

The budget Governor Corzine unveiled Tuesday calls for eliminating property tax deductions on state income taxes next year, raising about $420 million to help balance a painful spending plan. But for middle-class New Jerseyans who would also lose their property tax rebates, the missing deduction could pack an extra punch.

Although many budget details had leaked in advance, the lost tax write-off caught many off guard. Corzine would remove the property tax deduction on income taxes for all but senior citizens, and eliminate property tax rebates for non-senior households making more than $75,000 a year. Non-senior households earning $50,000 to $75,000 would see their rebate check from last year slashed by a third. Last year’s program offered staggered rebates for households making up to $150,000.

That could translate into a double whammy for non-senior homeowners earning $75,000 to $150,000. They lose their rebate and hundreds of dollars from the deduction.

A homeowner earning $95,000, for example, would not only lose a $1,000-plus rebate. Scrapping the property tax deduction would take away another $350 or so, according to state figures.

“The loss of the deduction would make homeownership even harder for New Jersey residents who are struggling to make ends meet during this recession,” said Senate Minority Leader Tom Kean Jr., R-Union.