Posted on 04/11/2013 9:50:56 AM PDT by Olog-hai
Philip Checchia’s home in Barnegat, New Jersey, escaped undamaged from Hurricane Sandy in October, but the 67-year-old is bracing for a different kind of storm damage—higher property taxes.
New Jersey home owners already pay the highest taxes in the country, with the revenues going to fund schools, police, firefighters, roads, and building projects. When the value of taxable property drops in one area, the burden often shifts to others to make up the difference.
At the epicenter of the problem is Ocean County, where Checchia lives, and where miles of long, fragile barrier islands bore the brunt of the storm's beating. The storm carved $7 billion out of the total value of the county's taxable property. …
Ocean County saw its tax base—the combined value of all real estate subject to property taxes—dwindle to about $90 billion from $100 billion in 2012, said John C. Bartlett, a local elected official who heads the county finance department. About $7 billion of that is due to Sandy damage, with the remaining $3 billion stemming from ongoing reassessments after the housing market declined, Bartlett said. …
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
Student enrollment in my town is down about 25% in the past 10 years - over 1,000 fewer students.
No mention of teacher layoffs during that time.
Only more hiring of various crackpot new world order positions.
The budget increases, both municipal and school, keep coming every year.
Now, with Governor Fatso’s “cap” of 2%, if the spending increase = the max (oh, theoretically less than the max, but what district does that ?), there is NO REQUIREMENT for voter approval.
RepublicRats run the 21 counties, over 500 towns on behalf of nwo, most without realizing it.
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