Property taxes

[cernjSHU]

in NJ, there is no bigger problem than this issue for most NJ residents. Each year over many different municipalities you see the same story over and over. The giant sized payouts to retiring police officers for non used vacation and sick days. Just today, In the SL, Parsippany had to pay out $609,000 to 11 employees retiring of which 7 were police officers. The previous two police chiefs received approximately $444,000 and $360,00 respectivel in 2016 and 2013.

This is the biggest driver of property taxes and is an out right abuse of tax payer dollars. You don't use vacation days, you lose it or get to carry over 5 days a year. Sick time should be limited to receiving something like $10-15,000 payout. How can towns really come up with this type of money? End the golden parachute for police and fire. Enough is enough.

 

[HALL85]

New Jersey is not alone in this issue, but we are the absolute worst. Sat in a meeting last week with the state senator from Pennsylvania who ran through some of the same pension challenges they have in their budget process. At the end of his presentation though he said as daunting as this looks we are nowhere near as bad as New Jersey. And that's at the state level. Local like you said is much worse. We all know that it has to be dealt with but don't see much leadership to do so.

 

[SPK145]

in NJ, there is no bigger problem than this issue for most NJ residents. Each year over many different municipalities you see the same story over and over. The giant sized payouts to retiring police officers for non used vacation and sick days. Just today, In the SL, Parsippany had to pay out $609,000 to 11 employees retiring of which 7 were police officers. The previous two police chiefs received approximately $444,000 and $360,00 respectivel in 2016 and 2013.

This is the biggest driver of property taxes and is an out right abuse of tax payer dollars. You don't use vacation days, you lose it or get to carry over 5 days a year. Sick time should be limited to receiving something like $10-15,000 payout. How can towns really come up with this type of money? End the golden parachute for police and fire. Enough is enough.

All of this is a problem but get real, the biggest driver of property taxes (two-thirds of your property taxes) is the school budget with it's bloated administrative bureaucracy and the anti-education teachers' unions. Costs have skyrocketed while outcomes have stagnated or gotten worse.

I wonder what costs and outcomes would look like if the school budget was taken out of property taxes and made a user fee (or some hybrid of this)???

 

[cernjSHU]

All of this is a problem but get real, the biggest driver of property taxes (two-thirds of your property taxes) is the school budget with it's bloated administrative bureaucracy and the anti-education teachers' unions. Costs have skyrocketed while outcomes have stagnated or gotten worse.

I wonder what costs and outcomes would look like if the school budget was taken out of property taxes and made a user fee (or some hybrid of this)???

Problem with this is that the NJ Constitution mandates a free education. IS the percentage now 2/3's? I thought it was around half. What I never understood was how a town like Union operates with something like $15,000 cost per pupil. Why does it take $24,000 per pupil in a a city like Camden?

 

[SPK145]

Problem with this is that the NJ Constitution mandates a free education.

How is education free in NJ though, osmosis? It's an impossibility.

Also, nobody has ever been able to point out that section of the U.S. Constitution that allows for a Dept. of Education or its funding. Ever since that was started, education has stagnated and costs risen significantly.

 

[HALL85]

Problem with this is that the NJ Constitution mandates a free education. IS the percentage now 2/3's? I thought it was around half. What I never understood was how a town like Union operates with something like $15,000 cost per pupil. Why does it take $24,000 per pupil in a a city like Camden?

Think it has a lot to do with corruption and loaded administration. Remember reading several years ago that the Newark BOE was paid something like $3.6 million in salaries and the irony was that the state has been running the schools.

 

[anon_4htvdezyfe7k9]

I always wondered what were the major drivers of property taxes and the disparity between certain areas. For example the town I live in is two towns over from a town called Drexel Hill, which has one of the highest property taxes in Delaware County (still nothing close to a comparable type area in NJ), despite not even having a high school (if you live in Drexel Hill and send your kids to public school you have to send them to Upper Darby HS). They don't even have their own police force as the town is patrolled by the Upper Darby police department. The town I live in has one of the better school districts in the state, and the taxes are very reasonable as compared to some of these surrounding areas.

I have always been told that high property taxes are driven in large part by a lack of commercial locations, so the residents have to pick up the slack. I guess I could take a closer look at what % of my taxes are school taxes but I escrow it so don't pay very close attention to it as long as there are no huge increases year over year.

 

[cernjSHU]

I have always been told that high property taxes are driven in large part by a lack of commercial locations, so the residents have to pick up the slack. I guess I could take a closer look at what % of my taxes are school taxes but I escrow it so don't pay very close attention to it as long as there are no huge increases year over year.

This is very true. Towns do love having commercial property. That is why there seems to be a bank or a CVS or Walgreens every half a mile.

 

[Seton75]

All of this is a problem but get real, the biggest driver of property taxes (two-thirds of your property taxes) is the school budget with it's bloated administrative bureaucracy and the anti-education teachers' unions. Costs have skyrocketed while outcomes have stagnated or gotten worse.

I wonder what costs and outcomes would look like if the school budget was taken out of property taxes and made a user fee (or some hybrid of this)???

Yes, even grammar school seems to have three 100 admins. Changing that isn't an easy one. Simple changes
Sick day vacation reform
Retirement cannot be upped by ridiculous ot in the last few years.

Sloan Kettering is taking over some middletown property and by the deal they got, I don't think my taxes are going down...