Release: Statement regarding New Jersey State Senate Hearings on Property Tax Cap by Better Choices for New Jersey

Newark, NJ – As the New Jersey Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee prepares to hold a hearing Thursday regarding New Jersey Senate President Sweeney’s proposed 2.9% property tax cap, New Jersey Working Families Executive Director Bill Holland issued the following statement:

 

“We are disappointed that Senate President Sweeney has embraced Governor Christie’s wrongheaded approach to property taxes.  Sweeney’s proposed tax cap might provide a good soundbite, but like Governor Christie’s proposal, his tax cap plan would be a disaster for towns, cities and school districts across the state. Moreover, pushing a new property tax cap right after the legislature passes a budget that includes cuts of over a billion dollars in aid to localities would only lead to even more drastic cuts to essential services.

 

The Democratic proposal of a 2.9% legislative cap slightly improves Governor Christie’s rigid 2.5% constitutional cap, but at the end of the day property tax caps are simply bad policy. They cripple local governments and severely impact basic services like education, transportation, public safety and sanitation.

 

Regardless of its size, a cap on revenue will not reduce the cost of providing critical services. It will not make it less expensive to fund special education, fuel fire trucks, or cover the rising cost of health care. As the last three decades of Massachusetts’ experiment with Proposition 2 ½  have shown, a cap on property taxes leads to closed down schools, longer waits for emergency services, infrequent trash pickups, and shuttered libraries.

 

We need real leadership in Trenton, not more policies that sound simple in front of the cameras, but fail to address the pressing needs of New Jersey’s citizens. There are ways to bring state and local taxes more in line with ability to pay that won’t hamstring municipal governments and school districts as they struggle to provide services at a time when revenues are down across the board due to the recession. We are asking our legislators to protect vital services and reject both the Governor’s constitutional amendment as well as Senator Sweeney’s proposal.”