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Property taxes: N.J. hit another new high in 2016

New Jersey’s infamously high property taxes topped $8,500 per home in 2016, a 2.35 percent increase over the previous year, according to figures released Wednesday by the Department of Community Affairs.

Property owners paid $8,549  — $196 more than they did in 2015 when the average tax bill rose about 2.2 percent, according to the analysis.

The average residential bill has risen from $8,161 in 2014 to $8,353 in 2015 to $8,549 in 2016.

Essex County property owners were saddled with the highest taxes, at an average of $11,550, followed by Bergen County at $11,311 and Union County at $10,821. Cumberland County taxpayers paid the least, $4,027, according to the state data.

Gov. Chris Christie’s spokesman Brian Murray said the increases would have been even higher had the Republican governor not instituted a 2 percent cap that took effect in 2011.

“Rising property values largely triggered the slight rise in residential property taxes observed in 2016,” Christie’s spokesman Brian Murray said in a statement.

“Regardless, the annual increase in property taxes have averaged 2.04 percent since Governor Christie took office in 2010 — very close to the 2 percent annual cap he put into place to curve runaway taxation in New Jersey.

Murray said the increase would have been lower if Democratic lawmakers hadn’t demanded that some expenditures, such as health benefit costs, debt and emergency expenses, should not be subject to the 2 percent spending limit.

“But more importantly, the rate of increase is far below the astounding 7 percent-per-year tax growth New Jersey averaged during the decade preceding the Governor’s arrival in office,” Murray said.

The state aggressively tightened the cap on local property tax hikes in 2011 after property taxes rose 7 percent each year from 2004 to 2006.

However, the rate of increase in 2015 was higher than the previous three years. And based on the latest analysis, there was a similar increase in 2016.

The more modest incremental property tax increases over the last several years prove the property tax cap and the cost-saving strategies that went along with it are working, said Michael J. Darcy, executive director of the New Jersey League of Municipalities.

The 2 percent cap on salary increases for police and firefighters reached through arbitration is among “the kinds of things that do make an importance difference,” Darcy said.

The total amount raised through property taxes, or the tax levy rose by $703 million, the analysis said. More than half of that increase, $377 million, came from school district spending.

“You’re not ever going to affect property tax relief in this state or lower property taxes unless you at least address school funding,” said Assembly Minority Leader Jon Bramnick, (R-Union) told New Jersey 101.5, which released its own analysis earlier in the day that came to the same conclusions.

Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto (D-Hudson) agreed school funding was the key to keeping property taxes under control.

“School funding is about a quality education for all children, but it’s also about property tax relief,” Prieto said. If we can resolve the problem of not fully funding the school funding formula, then we will help ease property taxes for taxpayers throughout the state.”

Source: www.nj.com

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