Assemblyman Guy Gregg

GREGG: DEMOCRATS OBVIOUSLY PUT UP THE WHITE FLAG ON PROPERTY TAXES FIVE YEARS AGO

FIVE YEARS OF SOARING PROPERTY TAXES AND STILL NO PLANSeptember 27, 2006
Assemblyman Guy Gregg/973-584-5422
Assembly Republican Office/609-292-5339

GREGG: DEMOCRATS OBVIOUSLY PUT UP THE WHITE FLAG ON PROPERTY TAXES FIVE YEARS AGO

FIVE YEARS OF SOARING PROPERTY TAXES AND STILL NO PLAN

Assemblyman Guy Gregg today said he was shocked to hear Assembly Democrats accuse Republicans of putting up a "white flag" on property taxes given that the Democrat Party has not made any serious -- or successful -- attempt to solve the property tax crisis in the half-decade that they have ruled Trenton.

"As best I can tell, the Democrats who campaigned in 2001 on lowering property taxes put up a white flag of surrender the day they took office," said Gregg, R-Sussex, Morris and Hunterdon. "In fact, they didn't just surrender, they switched sides and did everything in their power to help increase property taxes."

Gregg noted that in the past five years the average property tax bill has increased by more than 30 percent with average annual property tax increases of between 6.5 and 7.5 percent -- nearly twice the annual increases experienced in the 1990's.

Last year property taxpayers shelled out a total of $19.5 billion -- an increase of more than $1.1 billion leaving the average New Jersey homeowner paying $1,309 more than they paid when the Democrats took office. That figure doesn't include this year’s increase.

"The Democrats have made the property tax crisis worse, have offered no solutions, and have shown little or no ability to curb their spending habits which have helped fuel this problem," Gregg said. "To my knowledge, Assembly Republicans and one lone Democrat -- Assemblyman Manzo -- are the only ones who have placed specific property tax reform plans on the table. If Speaker Roberts has a plan his caucus supports, let’s see it and debate it in public."

"We are now seven weeks into a property tax reform process in which the Democrats will not even allow a discussion of the issue of spending in the Abbott Districts, nor are we allowed to discuss rolling back recent legislatively enacted benefit enhancements," Gregg said. "Are we supposed to believe the Democrats are serious about finding a solution?"

"If they are, it is time to cut the rhetoric and show New Jersey homeowners the money."

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