“NJ had the same problem until our property tax increases were capped at 2%; now when teachers get 5% raises a bunch of young untenured parasites lose their jobs...”
Here in California, thanks to Prop 13, we’ve had our property taxes capped at 1% for 30 years. So thanks to this proposition, we can stay in our home now that we are retired.
That’s a big problem here in NJ (retirement); your taxes will be frozen when you’re 65, but they are frozen at such a high level already they would eat up too much of your monthly income. As a result, retirees flee, and are replaced by young immigrants who add schoolchildren (driving those costs higher).
Property tax caps are a Band-Aid applied to a gaping wound; a friend who live in CA for years described how settled areas deteriorated due to the caps (because they cut into services), and prospective homebuyers shied from those areas because they would buy in at a higher tax level than the existing residents (a new neighbor could pay twice as much as you for the same exact home, property lot, etc.). Instead, a new development would spring up further down the road (in another municipality), and the oldest areas would suffer.
Here in NJ there isn’t much land left develop; there is nowhere “down the road”, so those prospective buyers simply cross the Delaware River and live in PA. Lower costs (for now) in exchange for longer commutes; it doesn’t bode well for NJ...