New Jersey Real Estate Digest: It’s Out There – Property Tax Relief/Reform Solution

Well Jon Corzine tried something ambitious last week. He charged the legislature to find a viable solution to the ever increasing property taxes or he would give the people a chance to do the legislators job. Sounds like this governor wants what we all want – property tax relief and reform.

In her article, How do you spell (property-tax) relief? C-o-n-s-o-l-i-d-a-t-i-o-n in The Times of Trenton on Monday Joan Verplanck suggested “radical ideas will have to be accepted and the status quo will no longer be acceptable.” The idea of consolidation of municipal services sounds good in theory but I would like to hear more about how it has worked in other places before trusting my burning home (for which I pay increasing property taxes), to say a fire company from two towns away or trusting a police officer from one town over to get to my house in time to catch the burglar I heard breaking in.

For example, John Fiocco Jr. died in the small community of Ewing, NJ on the campus of The College of New Jersey. Now in that community the College has a police department and Ewing Township has a police department yet the crime goes unsolved. Why? Neither police department is very big. The Fiocco case even involved the State police because the search required looking in a land-fill in Pennsylvania (where the body was eventually found). While the skills of policing are the same dealing with the general public and dealing with college students probably requires a different skill set. Still one would think combining the two departments and augmenting officer skill sets would allow both communities access to a better trained police force.

Since here is some redundancy when it comes to policing, I imagine there is a similar problem with fire department. If there were a way to consolidate services that would keep response times around the five minutes or less mark and keep the bulk of a police personnel in areas of heavier crime activity then consolidation makes sense. Consolidating fire departments is a quite different matter. Fire is a living thing in that it breaths and feeds. It packs a deadly punch with its companions smoke and heat. Smoke kills long before fire does so having fire equipment in neighborhoods is essential. Consolidating here will require a careful hand if lives are not to be lost.

Do I think that legislators will be able to come up with a plan that satisfies everybody? Give me a break. Do I think they will come up with something that will replace rebates with -- like Bill Dressel suggests in his Tax process has begun article in The Times of Trenton -- something that will not “necessitate service and program cuts? It is doubtful -- after all sensitive topics like this and angry constituents do not make for long careers. Do I think that Governor Corzine’s threat to support a citizens’ constitutional convention (CCC) next year has merit. Yes, if he will really follow through with it. Do I think the CCC has a better chance of coming up with a solution than the legislature. Yes, because having to pay ever increasing property taxes is a great motivator to finding property-tax relief and ultimately property-tax reform.