I am a fellow current resident of the PRNJ. You are spot on with the one-sided approach that government takes with regards to expenditures. They never reduce spending, even when revenues decrease like the rest of us would have to do. They simply increase taxes or add fees because in their eyes, all government spending is absolutely necessary, and must therefore be funded somehow.
I just received an estimated tax notification from my municipality for the 3rd quarter (as you probably have as well). In the notice, they included a letter informing us there is a 'delay' of the adoption of the 2020 NJ state budget (no kidding).
My estimated 3rd quarter property taxes show an increase of 8%. This isn't a massive increase, but for the past 10 years, the annual increase has been a manageable 2%-3%. This jump is obviously due to the decrease in revenue as a result of the government imposed lockdowns, resulting in the closing of many small businesses and the related increase in unemployment claims.
Makes sense fro their perspective I suppose. Who is a more captive audience than property owners when the government needs to bleed some more money to feed their bloated budgets? Government unions are more powerful than tax-paying property owners.
The proverbial 'golden handcuffs' are keeping me here for at least another year.
My understanding is that anything over a 2% tax increase in NJ has to go on a ballot; in my area I just see other services disappear as teachers’ unions get 4-5% increases (because they can’t raise our taxes 4-5%). So the roads crumble, the painted stripes are worn away, foliage blocks stops signs - and the teachers laugh all the way to the bank.
The town north of me bought a closed Catholic high school (I suspect to prevent a charter school from doing so, because they are a tax burden as well), and the voters were asked to approve all kinds of spending to fix it up and staff it. They were smart enough to vote down every spending measure; they knew it was the only way their taxes could increase more than 2%, and they also knew that any new public school teachers hired for it would drain them even more.