Scandalous tax reassessment story proves there’s no “revenue” problem

By Matt Rooney | The Save Jersey Blog

At the end of another annual League of Municipalities bash punctuated by stake, booze, but no progress for the taxpayers, Save Jerseyans, it’s appropriate to reflect on this week’s most infuriating Garden State story. And this one is a real doozy.

First reported by NJ.com, the Division of Taxation is forcing three blue county towns – Jersey City (Hudson), Elizabeth (Union) and Dunellen (Middlesex) – to conduct property reassessments after tax boards failed to reassess for three decades.

Pieter_Brueghel_the_Younger,_'Paying_the_Tax_(The_Tax_Collector)'_oil_on_panel,_1620-1640._USC_Fisher_Museum_of_ArtElizabeth is the worst offender; an assessment hasn’t taken place there in 39 years. Consequently, homes in Elizabeth there are presently assessed at only 13% of the true market value.

What you need to know is that this mess is only the tip of proverbial iceberg, Save Jerseyans. Whether we’re talking about New Jersey’s absurd school funding formula or the urban property tax PILOT scam, anyone who’s honest is forced to admit that our state’s fiscal woes are 100% the result of misallocated or straight-up wasted resources, not insufficient “revenues.”

Democrats routinely feign concern over everyone paying their “fair share” of taxes. The exception, it seems, continues to be Democrats, living in Democrat-controlled cities, who are blissfully living off of the rest of the state.

The truth? All the money we need to fix the roads, fund pensions, and keep taxpayers from fleeing to cheaper states is already in the pipeline! We lack only the political will to make the right choices. For example, it’s high time to stop subsidizing the gubernatorial aspirations of Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop at the expense of the other 564 municipalities.

Time to quit cutting the steak and start working on severing the cord…

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Matt Rooney
About Matt Rooney 8390 Articles
MATT ROONEY is SaveJersey.com's founder and editor-in-chief, a practicing New Jersey attorney, and the host of 'The Matt Rooney Show' on 1210 WPHT every Sunday evening from 7-10PM EST.

7 Comments

  1. Trenton city also. Just reevaluated after 30 something years. We have the highest rates in the state already so I have no idea what people will do with the resultant tax increases some of which could be several thousand annually. This is how you finish off what little is left of a dying city…

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