From the Daily Record:
Pols mull local tax, fees to cut property taxes
By Tom Hester
Allowing local governments to charge their own taxes and levy fees against developers are two concepts that appear to be gaining momentum at the Statehouse as lawmakers look for ways to lower New Jersey’s property taxes.
Bill Dressel, executive director of the New Jersey League of Municipalities, said he’s hopeful both options will be among ideas pursued by Gov. Jon S. Corzine and the Legislature as they try to cut the nation’s highest property taxes by year’s end.
“They’ve indicated they’re something that’s in play,” said Dressel, who said he has spoken often recently with the administration and lawmakers about the ideas.
…
Assemblyman Reed Gusciora, long a supporter of charging developers to help pay for costs associated with development, said the idea is “picking up steam” and may be seriously considered in about two weeks. Lawmakers have until Nov. 15 to devise reform recommendations.“It’s more on everybody’s radar screen,” said Gusciora, D-Mercer. “People are starting to look at more ways to help municipalities control costs.”
The ideas aren’t new, but have received little legislative support and been opposed by builders. Yet many other states allow local governments to levy their own taxes and to charge developers what are typically called “impact fees.”
…
He said such fees would likely increase housing costs, though he said he couldn’t speculate by how much.Thirty-four states allow impact fees. On average, the charges range from about $2,250 for industrial buildings to about $7,700 per single-family home.
…
A special legislative committee considering whether the state constitution needs amending to provide property tax relief may consider the ideas for New Jersey.“Everything has to be taken up,” said Assemblyman John Burzichelli, the committee co-chairman. “I think all that stuff is valid.”
Welcome to Kalifornia. Consider our results and apply to your situation. What made this bad in Kalifornia:
Single party control [x]
Free spending Legislature [x]
State greed [x]
Yep, you got it all.
What happened to cutting spending? Why does the solution always need to consist of either new sources of revenue, or shifting the burden?
“Everything has to be taken up,” said Assemblyman John Burzichelli, the committee co-chairman. “I think all that stuff is valid.”
Everything? What about cutting the spending?
jb
Yeah….what he said…that thing about the spending….yeah, cut that off.
Seriously though, spending has increased by 8% – 12%+ per year for a while now even though the State’s finanials have been a mess. You would think someone as rich as Corzine wouldn’t care about special interest groups as much but I see no sign of that just yet.
yet another impediment to developing middle class housing
No Bubble Here: http://promo.realestate.yahoo.com/
Stop the nonsense. Just cut the damn spending. The state is bringing in approx $31 billion, it’s NOT a damn revenue problem. They are always seeking a way to bring im more income. Robbing Peter to pay Paul. When the state was shut down this past summer, did anybody, besides those using the state beaches/parks really care??? Let the damn state go on permanent sabbatical. It will save a lot of folks $, that are dreaming playing the lottery. 10% mandatory cuts across the board are a start.
they just dont get it in Trenton. Still
not finished picking the pocket of the taxpayer.
From the AP:
Las Vegas targets states’ biotech firms
Competition among states for biotech companies with high-paying jobs appears to have reached a new level, with Las Vegas targeting other states – first California and now New Jersey – in the high-stakes battle for up-and-coming companies.
State economic development agencies for years have been offering companies that move in or expand there packages of tax breaks, worker training grants, low-interest loans and other incentives in an effort to become one of the country’s biotech hubs, such as the Boston and San Francisco areas.
Now Las Vegas, known for its glitzy casino strip rather than cutting-edge science, is specifically targeting the 260 biotech companies in New Jersey, after another campaign lured 19 businesses from California and 42 from other states – only four of them in the life sciences – in the year ending in June.
“This is the first time I’ve heard of someone saying, `Well, we’ll go get the life sciences industry in New Jersey'” or another state, said Brady Huggett, managing editor of BioWorld Today, an industry newspaper. “Everyone wants biotech because of its high-paying jobs.”
gary,
Who would you trust, Ben or Kendra?
jb
Biotech.. the next bubble in a petri dish. Office pools on RNA gene therapy research. I can see it coming through my crystal micron microscope. Cell phones with micro capability. Smaller is better. Micromansions here we come.
Font sizes still look OK to everyone?
Trying to make some modifications for the folks that had issues with small fonts.
jb
New format / fonts look great. Thanks again for all your hard work and objective insights!
Check this place out in Netcong…
Assessed at $343,500
Offered at $329,900
With the tag “PRICE REDUCTION – OWNER MOTIVATED – BRING ALL OFFERS”
http://new.gsmls.com/public/detailLst.do?mlsNum=2287913
Gary,
Kendra is wrong. Not all bubbles pop overnight. The Nasdaq topped out on 3/14/00 and bottomed on 10/9/02, over 2-1/2 years from peak to valley. It seems like the RE market topped in approx the 4th quarter of 2005. We are only in the initial stages of the decline. RE always takes longer than stocks. Remember there is no margin clerk blowing the homeowner out of their long position, although this industry would be in much better shape if there were some risk management controls in place from the start. The fall in this market will take time, rest assured it’s coming.
BC Bob,
You’re absolutely right. During the 1929 crash, the market didn’t hit bottom until July, 1932, over 3 ½ years later. Many people refuse to admit defeat and hold on until the bitter end. Real estate tends to be even worse than stocks due to the psychological attachment to a home.
I would also take what Kendra says with a grain of salt. She is an Apprentice winner selling a very poorly timed “get rich in real estate book”.
i was reading an old peter drucker classic this morning, about the ‘next society’. he loves comparing US, Europe and Japan. 2 points relate to RE right now (although book was written during japan’s bubble bursting)…
– this is going to look more like japan than anything else. a long, long time will pass. other things will get better (lower priced oil), other things will get worse (pensions, unemployment, etc). i believe we will still be talking about 99-05 appreciation in 2011.
– demographics is relevant to the northeast. more so than midwest. most arent moving out due to ‘sticky’ issues (family, job etc)… and more people are going to move in (look at BBC studies on population density by 2015). say what you want about the NJ move out…but it is not a 5 year trend… people are coming. homese will be built. prices may well continue to slide, every year, for years…but no big blow up will correct this mess. the goverment can’t fix it, interest rates aren’t going to double (to flush all this out), and people cant/wont pick up and move to wichita where home prices are 1/3 of NNJ.
so, on the one hand NJ is SOL. on the other, we will always have ‘high demand’…which will become more intense despite our bitterness about taxes, population density and politicians that marry twice and then announce being gay, putting partners in positions of public security.
…anyway, we’ll watch this long, ugly story unwind… ever so slowly. the good news is… well…sorry..dont have a lot of good news this AM.
‘he loves talking’…
that is… peter loved. passed away earlier this year…forgot.
The 80’s bubble took almost 4.5 years to hit “bottom”.
jb
Kendra Todd from The Apprentice?
Please tell me your not seriously taking information from an B-list, “entertainment” celebrity.
Rich,
Are you kidding me??? The apprentice???? I actually wasted my time reading that garbage!!!!!!!!
That article is complete garbage. Did you catch the bit at the bottom of the page:
Kendra Todd is the first and only woman to win Donald Trump’s smash hit NBC show, “The Apprentice” on NBC. Additionally, she is Broker of Florida-based MyHouseRE.com, host of the popular HGTV Show “My House Is Worth What?” and a regular real estate contributor on Fox News Live. Her first book “Risk and Grow Rich: How to Make Millions in Real Estate” has been an instant success.
If there is going to be meaningful property tax cuts, the simple and sad truth is that there will be more shifting than cutting.
This however is a collosally bad idea. The problem isn’t that municipalities don’t have alternate ways to generate revenue, it is that they are allowed to generate revenue at all. The power to tax has to be taken away, or severely curtailed, from entities (school boards, fire districts, municipalities) that are so prone to abuse that power.
If we do not get at the power to tax it doesn’t matter how much cutting and shifting is done, we will, at best, have a few years of relief.
This is my favorite from Kendra:
“Real estate is not like the stock market. It’s like a drive through the Rocky Mountains.”
Do you think she realizes that you can go over the edge of a cliff in the Rockies?
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