Kim Guadagno is firing with both proverbial barrels today, Save Jerseyans, after her New Jersey gubernatorial election opponent Phil Murphy (D-Twitter) declined to say whether he’d extend the interest arbitration cap which will expire at the end of the year without affirmative action in Trenton.
“Now we know why Phil Murphy hasn’t released a plan to reduce property taxes: it’s because he wants to dismantle the property tax cap and return to the days of unchecked property tax increases like under Jon Corzine,” said Lt. Governor Guadagno. “This is a disqualifying position to take for anyone who wants to be governor of New Jersey, which already has the highest property taxes in the nation.”
Murphy made his comments in an interview with Politico NJ, relaying that “he has not decided whether he supports extending a soon-to-sunset law that effectively caps increases in local police and fire salaries to 2 percent.”
In a Save Jersey op-ed over the weekend, Asm. Michael Patrick Carroll (R-Morris) outlined the steep drop in property tax increases during the Christie Administration versus prior Democrat regimes:
2002 McGreevey 7.0%
2003 McGreevey 7.6%
2004 McGreevey/Codey 6.5%
2005 Codey 6.5%
2006 Corzine 6.9%
2007 Corzine 5.8%
2008 Corzine 4.9%
2009 Corzine 3.6%
Total increase: 50%
2010 Christie 4.0%
2% cap passed
2011 Christie 2.5%
2012 Christie 1.6%
2013 Christie 1.7%
2014 Christie 2.3%
2015 Christie 2.0%
2016 Christie 2.5%Total increase: 13%
“Murphy and the Democrats tell you that they will only be raising taxes on ‘the rich,’” Carroll opined. “What word do we use to describe a statement which someone knows to be untrue when she utters it?”
Christie’s arbitration cap received bipartisan support and is frequently cited by budget experts as a leading reason behind the downward pressure on New Jersey’s worst-in-America property taxes. The Democrat nominee is also proposing spending increases which are 58-times larger than the projected revenues from his $1.3 billion tax hike plan.
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