Posted on 10/31/2009 2:36:40 PM PDT by SmithL
Paramus, N.J. (AP) -- It sounds like another New Jersey joke. Except it's not funny if you actually live here. For the privilege of living in perhaps the nation's most-maligned state, New Jerseyans pay the highest property taxes in America.
That overriding issue — not President Barack Obama, health care or the economy — could cost Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine his job on Election Day.
The former Wall Street whiz, who has failed to solve the Garden State's tax woes amid a deep economic decline, is locked in a tight race with Republican Chris Christie, a corruption-busting former federal prosecutor whose main appeal appears to be that he isn't Corzine.
A moderate independent in the race, Chris Daggett, a former state and federal environmental official, has surprised the political establishment by becoming a factor — and maybe a spoiler — partly because of his plan to reduce property taxes by 25 percent.
New Jersey's crushing tax burden is blamed largely on its profusion of hundreds of cities, towns, townships, boroughs and school districts, all with their own bureaucracies, overlapping authority and duplicated services.
Last year, the average bill for a homeowner was more than $7,000 — about twice the national average and 71 percent more than a decade earlier. It's a bill homeowners have to pay whether they get a big raise, a pink slip or a fixed pension.
"It just keeps going up," lamented Tim Nowakowski, a 52-year-old kitchen designer from Shamong who pays about $8,000 in property taxes. "Nothing goes down."
Jerry Rickleman, 46, of Paramus, said his mother and mother-in-law are both in their 80s and their property tax bills make it difficult to make ends meet. "They're both drowning here," he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Sounds like the Goldman Sachs crowd are the ones who can afford N.J. Eventually, well paid govt employees are going to say “enough” already.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find only things evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelogus
Corzine has done some really dispicable things like living with the President of the Sttate Union he was negotiating against!eo making a mockery of the budgeting and spending for the State, to almost being Killed while in a speeding Limousine unsecured by a seatbelt while “Working in the Back” with his Beautiful Assistant:-O
These exorbitant taxes on residential property are just plain sinful.
“...former Wall Street whiz....”
Hmmm....dim-bulb-crat, works on Wall Street. He was no whiz. He was the typical dim bulb supported by corruption. Sorry, were he really a whiz, he’d never get into government. Those who go into government go there because they know that failure is just around the corner.
After all, they’re competing with REAL whizzes...conservatives.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find only things evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelogus
Watching Frank Luntz's focus group on Hannity the other night all I could think was: I hope they flee to some place other than Pennsylvania when the whole economy finally collapses. Even the "moderates" were kookballs. They're in a race with Michigan to see which can become the first "failed state" in North America.
New Jersey should be renamed "The Superfund State" and that's just the populace not the environment.
In a related anecdote, I recall from county records the tax sale of 40 acres of beautiful beachfront property here on the north Gulf Coast of FL during the Great Depression because the owner could not come up with $15.
This election will be Franken, Part II. Corzine and the dems know they can’t win an honest election. They have thrown in a put up job of a third party candidate just to make the election close enough to steal. Look for a recount to be declared soon afer the elections featuring “found” ballots, ballots wihtout matching signatures being counted, ballots from service members being disqualified, different standards for different counties on the recount.
Property taxes and car insurance rates have been the main topic for the NJ Governor’s race for the past 30 years.
Every Governor (Republican or Democrat) promises to lower them and nothing gets accomplished.
But the people keep coming back for more!
I saw the same show and could not believer how ignorant they were. Don’t they know that most taxes are eventually passed on to the middle class. Let the drown in their own excrement.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find only things evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelogus
“I have NO sympathy for New Jerseyans. The nitwits keep re-electing the folks who raise their taxes. Why are they the heck complaining? Its supposed to be a socialist paradise there!”
Tou are ignorant as well.
I live in NJ and HATE socialism and ALWAYS vote against it.
Me thinks the dead will elect the Democrat incumbant Corzine from the grave.
“I have NO sympathy for New Jerseyans. The nitwits keep re-electing the folks who raise their taxes. Why are they the heck complaining? Its supposed to be a socialist paradise there!”
YOU are ignorant as well.
I live in NJ and HATE socialism and ALWAYS vote against it. Many of us are frustrated beyond words.
I hear ya...it’s a foregone conclusion that if this election is even close, you can bet your bottom dollar the despicable dems will steal it. I can hear it now...just as you lay out.
Anytime AP tries to deflect the blame, you know they are getting worried.
The best way that I heard it put regarding property taxes in NJ goes like this: You pay property taxes to fund the schools in your town, you then pay virtually the same amount, again in property taxes, to find the schools in Newark. In other words, the taxpayers are simply carrying along a huge non-contributing class of people in NJ. Sure, it happens elsewhere, but in NJ they have terrible luck to have the left-wing ideology, along with large numbers of minorities...a VERY expensive mix.
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