From the Asbury Park Press:
Property tax reform back on the table
With major reforms stalled, New Jersey legislators return to work this week after missing their Jan. 1 deadline to tackle the nation’s highest property taxes.
The Legislature left for a holiday break on Dec. 14 after failing to adopt any major property tax-cutting proposals recommended by special committees that spent months debating how to cut property taxes that are twice the national average.
Meanwhile, plans to give most homeowners a 20 percent property tax cut have yet to be formalized by majority Democrats, who vowed to give the 20 percent break to households who earn $100,000 or less per year. Households earning up to $250,000 per year would get 15 and 10 percent breaks under the plan.
Gov. Corzine supports the property tax credit concept, but said he won’t approve the tax breaks unless lawmakers agree to cap annual property tax increases at 4 percent and create the position of state comptroller to investigate spending by state and local governments.
Yet neither of those plans has advanced toward law. The tax-cap plan hasn’t been introduced. The comptroller bill was twice pulled from December Senate votes amid disagreements among Corzine and lawmakers over the post’s authority and scope.
Assembly committees are slated to meet Thursday, with both houses scheduled for Jan. 8 voting sessions.
Despite missing their self-imposed deadline to adopt reforms by year’s end, Democrats continue to express confidence progress will be made early this year. Corzine said reforms need to be adopted by Feb. 27, when he must introduce his budget proposal for next fiscal year.
“Progress is being made toward ensuring that property tax relief will not be lost in a sea of outdated mandates and antiquated bureaucracy,” said Assembly Majority Leader Bonnie Watson Coleman, D-Mercer. “We already have done more in one week to promote systemic reforms than had been done in years.”
…
“They promised property tax relief and reform by the end of 2006 and utterly failed to deliver on that promise,” said Assembly Minority Leader Alex DeCroce, R-Morris. “Is it any wonder thousands of New Jersey families are fleeing the state each year for more tax-friendly environments? It’s time to end the exodus.”
From the Record:
Extending care to all
New Jersey would become one of the few states offering universal health care, through a state-subsidized plan that would insure 1.4 million people, under a proposal being drafted by lawmakers.
State Sen. Joseph Vitale, D-Middlesex, who hopes to introduce a bill by April, said all residents would be required to have health insurance, much the same way all New Jersey drivers must purchase auto insurance. Those who couldn’t afford it would join the subsidized plan — even enrolling as they seek emergency care.
The cost could reach $1.7 billion in its first year alone, Vitale said, but the tab would be reduced by new enrollees’ premiums.
…
Yet, at a time when the state Legislature is mired in property tax reform and facing a budget gap that could reach $3 billion next year, the sticker shock can be a conversation stopper.
“I’d love to do it,” said Senate President Richard J. Codey, D-Essex. “But how do you pay for it at a time when we’re talking about trimming the tree financially? We’re trying to provide property tax relief.”
Let’s not kid ourselves,Property tax is OUT,dead in the water…New Jersey owe’s to much and Czar Corzine just keeps heaping on the bills (Needle Xchange,stem cell bill,and now health care.)the mass exodus will accelerate uitill middle and upper middle class realize that it’s just not worth paying over 55% of your income to pay taxes…with other states offering incenteves to move to there state ,your stupid to put up with this .
So people would have to enroll and they’d have to pay premiums? What if they can’t afford it? Do the taxpayers pick up their premium tab?
What about all the illegal aliens are we going to have to continue paying for them too?
This is how democracy works. People voted (early and often, by legal and illegals) for democratic party so you should not complain.
CA, NY, NJ, MA are all losing (middle class) population (new arrivals are largely illegals so democratic party control will be even stronger). Unfortunately, people who escape blue states bring their voting patters with them. This country is doomed. Enjoy your taxes!
of course you going to have continue to pay
for the illegals. Don’t you get it. NJ is
a welfare state and welcomes all illegals.
Look around at the streets. NJ has been runied
by these low lifes who have come here and
BK’d NJ.
The Pols have given the state away.
Pesche, terry, ya’ll very wise men. this state is doomed and the only thing we can do about it is LEAVE. lock, stock and barrel. LEAVE.
Empty promises for years on end. Property taxes will only go higher, as will all other taxes and expenses. Why are we even discussing this? Why do we live in NJ. For that bakery/pizza joint/restaurant that we’ve gone to since 1978, and it’s not really that good anymore. For what? I can’t even tell you where to go for a PIzza made by Italians… oh ONE… ONE in the whole state is Pizza Town USA on RT46 where the parkway crosses it. That is all. Come on. NJ is not turning into a 3rd world provence…IT IS A 3rd World Provence.
Get over it. The Boston Tea party was over a 2cent tax. WTF are we still doing in this state? Move your business out. Sell your house. Move your grandma out. Talk your employer into moving out. Get out. It is over. You can’t turn the tide. Look at the elections. Look at the braindead/brainwashed voters. Look at the farse of a media we have with our crappy pinko newspapers.
For years they never took a fiscally conservative stance… you think they will now?
What about all the illegal aliens are we going to have to continue paying for them too?
from the article…
Uninsured legal and illegal immigrants and the homeless would be treated at a statewide network of clinics. The state cannot legally arrange insurance policies for undocumented immigrants, so the clinics are the best alternative, Vitale said. And anyone still in need of hospital treatment could obtain it.
So the answer is “yes”. We can’t legally give them insurance, but we can get around the law by just paying for no insurance/no questions asked clinics at the taxpayer’s expense.
This is NJ; would you really expect anything different?
what tax cuts???
Is anybody getting one?
I have a uncle who owns a small moving co in Monmouth Co,he was tell me he has never gotten so many calls from people who are moving to ,Pa, Md ,and the Carolinas..he just can’t handel the all the work,when he tells people they tell him everybody else is booked for 8 to 12 months…what does that tell ya…so if your lookin to move out plan ahead