Governor Murphy plans to make a revamped homestead rebate program a centerpiece of next week’s budget address, Save Jerseyans. He gave us a preview on Thursday during a Fair Lawn appearance.
“While the state does not set property taxes, we believe that we must take action to offset costs and make life in New Jersey more affordable,” Murphy explained in a statement. “Through the ANCHOR Property Tax Relief Program, we can provide real support for families and seniors, helping them stay in the homes and communities they love.”
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Before I rip this scam to shreds, we need to give you a little history.
Brendan Byrne inaugurated the property tax rebates right before his 1977 gubernatorial reelection; his Republican opponent’s alternative solution (replacing New Jersey’s state income tax with a bigger sales tax) failed to carry the day. Who doesn’t love free money, right?
22 years later, Christine Todd Whitman promised $600 annual property tax rebates. That scheme went belly up in 2005 because Trenton did what it always does and overspent.
The average property tax bill in 1999 was around $4,000.
Today, it’s pushing $10,000 and certainly gets higher as you move to the northern counties.
The term “scam” is overused in politics but it truly applies here, folks. Rather than FIX the drivers of property tax growth (notably our state’s insane school funding formula), Trenton politicians cynically hand us small infusions of cash – our own cash, paid back to us – in order to purchase our loyalty at the polls.
Murphy’s “ANCHOR” plan would allegedly give around $700 on average to 1.5 million Garden State homeowners earning up to $250,000. Again… we’ve been down this road before. Murphy and those who follow him in office will more than likely pay for these rebates with tax hikes, increased spending, and very expensive borrowing schemes.
What’s even crazier about Murphy’s plan: he’s giving $250 to 600,000 renters earning $100,000 annually or less. People who don’t pay property taxes directly. So this isn’t a property tax rebate: it’s a stimulus at a time when inflation is ravaging our economy.
This is silly on multiple levels. A major driver of rent increases is obviously the nation’s worst property taxe burdens. Cutting taxes would obviously help renters by making it less expensive for landlords to maintain properties. Free money for those not paying the bills not only limits landlord relief (after two years of landlords taking it on the chin during the pandemic eviction freeze), but it also encourages some renters to rent beyond their means – never a good thing – and helps inflate an already brutal rental market. Many renters aspire to move into the ownership class eventually; high tax rates make mortgages unattainable, and redistributed rebates don’t solve the problem.
None of this makes sense, folks. None of it. Unless, of course, your motivation is advancing a hyper-ideological notion of “fairness” that lacks a firm footing in the real world.
We need to demand REAL relief in the form of actual cuts. Anything else is the same old, ancient Trenton sleight of hand accounting which, assuming the rebates don’t go away as they have in the past, matters for less and less as property taxes continue to rise. What’s a 7% rebate today will be half that or worse in the near future. Simple math; inescapble reality.
