Kean, Angelini and Rible Warn Homeowners: Higher Property Tax Bills are on the Way

State Senator Sean Kean, Assemblywoman Mary Pat Angelini and Assemblyman David Rible said 11th Legislative District homeowners should brace themselves for higher property tax bills following the release today of the amount of state aid individual municipalities will receive for the next fiscal year.

“When Governor Corzine signed the state’s new budget Monday he, in effect, signed into law yet another tax increase for our district’s working families,” explained Kean, R-Monmouth. “The aid the 11th district and many other suburban communities will receive from Trenton will leave local governments no choice but to cut services and increase property taxes.”

“To say this budget contains no tax hikes is pure fantasy,” said Angelini, R-Monmouth. “It’s a back-door tax increase that may well be the last straw for many of our homeowners. As New Jersey’s population continues to shrink, so too will our tax base which will cause taxes to continue to climb. It’s a vicious circle the Democrats refuse to stop, but for the sake of our state and its residents, must be broken.”

According to figures released today by the state Department of Community Affairs (DCA), of the 25 municipalities that comprise the 11th Legislative District none will have its state aid fully restored. Twenty communities will receive partial restoration while five will not have any of its aid restored.

Governor Corzine’s original budget plan called for $190 million in cuts in state aid to municipalities. The $32.8 billion budget he signed Monday restores $60 to $70 million in aid, but scales back or eliminates property tax rebate checks for families with household incomes above $100,000. Despite the restoration, Statewide, nearly 50 percent of all municipalities will have a net reduction in aid.

“You don’t have to be a Wall Street financier to figure out the bottom line,” stated Rible, R-Monmouth. “Local governments will have no recourse but to raise property tax bills to make up for the loss of state aid. This will have a devastating effect on our residents who are already struggling to make ends meet. Many have been treading water for the past few years, however, I fear this new budget with its state aid cuts will put them under.”

“The cuts in municipal aid coupled with scaled back property tax rebates for many and, for some, the elimination of rebates altogether, is a double blow from which it will be extremely difficult to recover,” added Kean. “Many homeowners will again find themselves with less money in one hand and a higher property tax bill in the other.”

Kean, Angelini and Rible recently held a press conference in Bradley Beach in which they highlighted the inequitable distribution of state aid to several municipalities. They noted that had Corzine limited aid increases to the rate of inflation in 15 urban school districts located in Hudson and Essex counties, the state could have saved nearly $75 million in this year's budget. The $75 million includes $22 million in new spending for the Union City School District alone. Conversely, the governor’s original proposal to cut aid to towns of less than 10,000 residents has been estimated to result in a savings of only $37.5 million statewide.

Angelini and Rible also noted that the meager school aid increases their district received this year is not nearly enough to offset the reduction in municipal aid. Statewide, most districts received a modest 3 percent increase in aid after nearly six years of having their aid frozen.

“Even with those school aid increases, the cuts in municipal aid will result in higher taxes and make this state even less affordable for families in our district,” said Rible.

Added Angelini, “This is exactly why Republicans proposed a full restoration of municipal aid and property tax relief as part of our common sense alternative budget proposal.”

Republicans in the Senate and General Assembly had offered an alternative budget plan to reprioritize $1.32 billion in unnecessary spending from the governor’s budget proposal and to use those changes in priorities to restore property tax relief, municipal aid, charity care, college tuition aid for students and to finance the state’s transportation needs without gas tax or toll hikes. Governor Corzine outright rejected the proposal.

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