Posted on 09/05/2006 1:00:33 PM PDT by Coleus
Business lobbyists are set to square off against state lawmakers who are considering reducing residential property taxes and recoping some of the revenue by raising property tax rates for business. The idea, which would require an amendment to the state constitution, is to be discussed next week at a Sept. 7 legislative committee meeting. It was initially touched on at a committee meeting earlier this month.
Business advocates are outraged that the topic is being discussed at all. “From our perspective, that is not reform,” says Jim Leonard, vice president of government relations for the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce. “It’s shifting the burden of payments and that is unconscionable.”
The chamber is requesting time to testify at next week’s hearing. Thomas A. Bracken, chamber chairman and CEO of Sun National Bank, has addressed the issue on the chamber’s Website. “If this disastrous scenario becomes reality, it could be the final nail in the state’s economic coffin,” Bracken wrote in an opinion piece on the chamber’s Website. “Those responsible for creating jobs within companies will certainly go ballistic if their tax burden is increased significantly once again.”
Bracken says the state’s business climate is bleak already and he refers to a study by the Washington, D.C.-based Tax Foundation that found that New Jersey has the second-worst tax conditions for business in the country.
This summer, four joint state legislative committees are holding unprecedented sessions to find ways to reduce the state’s highest-in-the-country property taxes. Three of the committees are exploring ways to lower taxes by cutting state expenses. But one of the four—the Committee on Constitutional Reform and Citizens’ Property Tax Constitution Convention—is investigating whether amendments to the state constitution could reduce property taxes.
That committee last month began considering possible changes to the constitution’s “uniformity clause,” which mandates that all property owned by residents or businesses must be taxed at the same rate within each municipality.“If the uniformity clause was rescinded or amended there would be no cap on taxes paid by business taxpayers,” says Arthur J. Maurice, first vice president of the New Jersey Business & Industry Association (NJBIA). “They can go sky high.”Maurice says the average New Jersey business pays $2,100 in property tax, the highest in the nation. According to the NJBIA, New Jersey business pays $6 billion in property taxes, or nearly a third of the state’s property tax revenues.
The average homeowner bill is $5,826 per property, or twice the national average, according to Gov. Jon Corzine’s administration. It says the property tax generates 46% of all tax revenue in New Jersey, compared with the national average of 30%.
they don't even mention where the underlying problem comes from - wages and pensions for public school teachers and government workers - their numbers are increasing, and so is their compensation, outstripping the ability of people who earn wages in the private sector, to pay for it.
Texas Gov Perry exporting bad Govt to other States?
Texas Gov Perry exporting bad Govt to other States? >>>
I guess so.
I'm wondering what states do have good tax policy. I think Colorado revamped their tax code.
Sounds like New Jersey has a spending problem, not a revenue problem.
Pretty much the same as every other state.
Prop 13 in California solved that problem. Of course, the spenders find creative ways around limitations by inventing "user fees" (for traditionally tax-paid services). This, of course is fraud, but short of public lynchings, there seem to be no countermeasures.
....not to mention 20 million or so illegals meandering around necessitating new schools, public housing and hospitals....
"“From our perspective, that is not reform,” says Jim Leonard, vice president of government relations for the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce. “It’s shifting the burden of payments and that is unconscionable.” "
No, Jim. That is Socialism and until you decide to stop backing Democrat candidates with ties to unions, this is what you are going to get.
If Carly Schwartz didn't teach you anything, no one will.
(No more Olmert! No more Kadima! No more Oslo! )
The classic line is "Dont tax you, Dont tax me - tax that man behind the tree!" It is pin the tax tail on the donkey time in New Jersey - who will be the loser this year? Luckily California has Prop 13 to prevent this NJ property tax hell from happening here.
BUMP!
As a matter of fact, FL isn't so hot right now. Property taxes have gone up significantly this past year, (I don't have the exact %) and Homeowner's insurance is skyrocketing. Jeb! was threatening to call a special session of the Legislature over it.
Now shut up and get back to your oar.
Before some squirrel grills you for failing to mention that this is a state issue and HR25 is a federal bill, let me just state the potential 'trickle down' effect of consumption taxation on the states. As people get used to the inherent benefits and preferable lifestyle of only paying tax when they purchase items, they will most likely start demanding the same from state and local governments.
It works quite well in FL- as we can see by comparing the fiasco with property taxes alongside our lean, mean sales tax system.
fair tax bump. I think oceanview's post says it all, the gov't pensioners and wage earners are using up more resources than the productive people can create.
Equal to what? A year's salary?
I believe that passage of the FairTax will, in the long run, force part of the government genie back into bottle. IOW, We the People will force major changes in the way government taxes us.
I foresee all local, city, county, state taxes being abolished in favor of a sales tax, with, when the dust settles a few years after the first state does abolish all its taxes in favor of a sales tax, a rate of around 25%.
The rate would have to be higher at first, but eventually would settle in at around 25% as the economy picked up steam.
That 25% number, BTW, was the number that the Reader's Digest folks came up with in a survey they commissioned a few years ago. When Americans FRom all walks of life were asked what they thought the rate for all taxation should be, by a wide margin, 25% was the preferred rate.
All we have to do is get enough Real Americans on our side and we can do this.
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