New Jersey property taxes: Time to demand change

Now it’s your turn.

The Asbury Park Press’ “Tax Crisis” investigation last week showed not only how runaway property taxes were destroying families and chasing residents out of state, but how insiders exploited the system to reap billions from your wallets — all while politicians ignored the most pressing issue of the last decade.

Other states have fixed their tax problems after citizens rose up and demanded change.

SEE ALSO: Towns make millions from tax misery http://dailyre.co/1RMiRYZ 

Now is the time to demand change from your lawmakers.

It won’t be easy. Polling by Monmouth University in West Long Branch shows that the property tax debacle has been the top concern of voters for the last nine years. The issue is so intractable, university pollster Patrick Murray said, that residents have virtually thrown up their hands and tuned out the political system.

That’s great news for politicians and political insiders. It’s bad news for the rest of us.

SEE ALSO: Flight of the Yankees: New Jerseyans go South http://dailyre.co/1RK2Dzz 

On Nov. 3, all 80 seats of the Assembly are up for election. This is a prime time to compel lawmakers and candidates to listen to your concerns. Here are our recommendations:

-- Make property tax relief the only issue this election. Tell candidates and lawmakers you will vote solely based on their pledge to fix the system before the end of the year. The Asbury Park Press and its sister papers in the Gannett New Jersey media group are asking all lawmakers, including state senators who are not up for election this term, to sign a pledge to put a tax reform plan in place by the end of the year. They have a number of options: hold a special property tax session; pass new laws; establish a special tax convention run by specially elected citizens.

We’ll tell you next week who signed — and who didn’t.

SEE ALSO: N.J. taxes report: Businesses say fix N.J. now http://dailyre.co/1RQ6tHn 

-- Sign the tax cut petition. This petition on Change.org, sponsored by Gannett, is your direct link to lawmakers. New Jersey doesn’t have a way for citizens to put initiatives or referendums on the ballot, a direct democracy option available in 27 other states. Adding your voice to the petition is the best way to let state leaders know how you feel. We will deliver the results to the governor and leaders of the Legislature before the election. You can find the petition at http://bit.ly/njtaxcutnow. Once you sign it, share it through Facebook and social media to let everyone know there is a way to make your voice heard.

-- Vote on Nov. 3. Last year, just a third of registered voters cast ballots in the November election. It was a near-historic low. The more people who vote, the less power insiders will have. Become an advocate for democracy. Press friends and family members to exercise their right to elect the government that represents their views, not those of insiders.

SEE ALSO: The Trenton way: Save $1, spend $2,800 more http://dailyre.co/1LtNzVO 

Change can happen.

“It can be done with political leadership,” said pollster Murray, whose Monmouth Polling Institute has done national polling on the presidential campaigns. “We saw the possibilities years ago (in the 2006 legislative special tax session). It just requires a governor who is willing to stick his neck out and say, ‘I’m going to risk my entire political career on fixing this problem.’ ”

Success will be measured by how much property taxes will decrease, Murray said.

SEE ALSO: Tax Crisis: Meet the $200,000 officer http://dailyre.co/1LsdKfv

The solution will be in the details, he says. It’s easy for leaders to talk in broad strokes, to claim that cutting this or that will solve the problem. Voters may be willing to see a hike in the income tax, if it leads to direct property tax relief, Murray said.

But here is the hard math: Just to freeze property tax increases next year, the cash-strapped state would have to find an extra $540 million to pay for the built-in salary and benefit increases for schools, towns and counties. Want to bring taxes down 10 percent, to where they were between 2009 and 2010? The state would have to find $3 billion. It’s annual budget is $34 billion, and it has up to $200 billion in looming debt.

SEE ALSO: Special report on taxes: Where we are today http://dailyre.co/1LiGMx0 

The “Tax Crisis” series outlines some of the suggestions offered by experts and citizens, from spreading the sales tax to currently exempt items, such as clothing and food, to consolidating town services to save money. In reality, the best solution may be one that covers all the options to break the back of perennial tax increases.

None of this can happen without you.

Because it is your turn to act. Now.

SEE ALSO: Exclusive: Fighting New Jersey’s property tax crisis http://dailyre.co/1LphJcE 

Highest in the nation. Property taxes cost homeowners $27 billion last year, for an average tax bill of $8,200.

•Big tax hike – every year. Even if the state’s 2 percent cap on annual property tax increases were strictly enforced, local taxes increase by $540 million each year.

•Migration is killing the state’s future. More than 88,000 residents left New Jersey over five years and were not replaced by people moving into the state. The imbalance has cost the state $8.2 billion in lost taxable income.

•Spending spree. For every $1 Trenton lawmakers want to cut, they propose $2,800 in new spending.

•Losing homes. On average, 400 homeowners a day see their homes go into a tax lien sale for non-payment of taxes. It is the highest per capita rate in the nation.

•The poor pay more. The property tax takes a bigger bite out of low-income household salaries than those in the upper income tax brackets. This inequity puts New Jersey on the same plane as Bolivia. And the imbalance has gotten worse since the recession.

•Voter lock out. Taxpayers can’t fix the tax issue because there is no constitutional mechanism to place a referendum on the ballot. All changes have to come from the Legislature.

•Insiders win. Political favorites win tens of millions of dollars in government contracts and jobs by playing the system in 565 municipalities, 586 school districts and dozens of other agencies with tax power.

•High salaries. The state has the highest average police patrol salaries and one of the highest average teacher salaries in the nation. Combined, they cost taxpayers $12 billion a year — nearly half of all the property tax raised.

READ MORE: Coverage of New Jersey's property tax crisis http://php.app.com/taxpain/

Gannett New Jersey talked to dozens of business leaders, economics experts, political leaders and homeowners in the past year, all with their own ideas about how to fix New Jersey’s tax problems. Here is our distillation of the most promising ideas:

1) Create focused economic zones across the state – funded by their own success. The state already has economic zones – pharmaceutical and petrochemical in the north, tourism along the coast, agriculture in the south. They can grow faster if part of the business tax and sales tax is reinvested into those zones. More growth will increase tax revenue, which ultimately will help reduce property taxes across the state.

2) Consolidate smartly to cut expenses. More shared services and elimination of redundant overhead costs, such as superintendents, police chiefs and the accompanying support structure, can save millions at the top of the pyramid.

3) Freeze public salary increases and instill lower starting salaries for new government employees so it will take longer for them to reach the top pay scale. Consider one unified statewide contract for school, police and public workers.

4) Swallow the medicine. Be prepared to accept part of the pain — for example, school, town and police consolidation, and partial sales tax on some now-exempt items — to cut your overall taxes. Lower property taxes also means cutting costs, and that can’t come without some sacrifice.

5) Vote. As much of a cliché that it is, your vote still matters. Just a fraction of all voters cast ballots in the primaries and off-year elections. If you don’t make your voice heard through the ballot box and town halls, nothing will change. Demand action and push lawmakers for a constitutional convention on taxes if they take no action this year.

Make property tax relief the only issue this election

Sign the tax cut petition at bit.ly/njtaxcutnow

Vote on Nov. 3.