TAX NEWS - 
2010
New Jersey Tax: Annual limit on property tax increases
Oliver met for more than two hours with her party in the state capitol building in Trenton today to discuss the proposal and Christie's 33-point package of legislation aimed at controlling property taxes. The full Senate is expected to approve the measure tomorrow, according to President Stephen Sweeney. Oliver, whose party controls the Assembly 47-33, didn't set a date for the vote.
"We know that the residents of this state want to see some restraints put on taxes," said Oliver, a Democrat from East Orange, who declined to tell reporters in Trenton when her house will vote on the plan. "They certainly don't want us to wait six months."
Christie, a Republican who took office Jan. 19, and the Democratic-led Legislature announced an agreement July 3 on the plan to rein in the state's property taxes, which are the highest in the U.S. at an average of $7,281 in 2009, up 72 percent since 1999.
The governor, 47, had called for a constitutional amendment capping increases in the levies at 2.5 percent and allowing communities to exceed it only for bond payments or through a referendum. Christie dropped that demand and agreed to more exemptions after facing resistance from legislators.
Tax Pact
Under the pact, the tax increases would be capped at 2 percent with exemptions for rising health-insurance costs, bond payments, natural disasters and pension costs, Christie told reporters July 3 in Trenton. Communities also would be able to exceed the cap with the approval of a simple majority of voters in a public referendum.
Assembly Budget Committee Chairman Louis Greenwald, a Democrat from Cherry Hill, said his panel will debate Christie's package of nearly three-dozen measures throughout the summer. The initiatives include allowing towns to opt out of civil service guidelines and changing the union arbitration process to bring down employee costs.
Oliver said the Assembly lawmakers will examine whether a tax-cap would limit the ability of towns and schools to have enough revenue to compensate for any rise in uncollected levies, increased special education costs or the loss of state aid. The issues will be addressed during deliberations on Christie's package of tax measures, she said.
'New Dynamic'
"I don't know if it will be this week," Assembly Budget Officer Joseph Malone, a Republican from Bordentown, said of the vote. He said the compromise shows there is a "new dynamic" in Trenton and "the world is no longer round; it is flat, and we have to understand that."
Had the plan been in place from 1999 to last year, the average homeowner in Ridgewood would have saved $3,522 in tax payments over that decade, according to data released by Christie's office. In Millburn Township, a community of about 20,000 people that sits 30 minutes west of Manhattan by car, the cap would have saved homeowners $6,753 on average during that period.
Christie said the plan will drive down taxes by reducing the current 4 percent threshold by half. A provision requiring voter approval to exceed the cap will give the public a voice in taxation, he added.
'Time to Act'
"Now is the time to act, not hesitate," said Christie yesterday. "The stakes are too high for New Jersey families who are struggling to make ends meet and fighting to stay in their own homes to delay any longer in providing real, meaningful property tax relief."
Joseph Marbach, a political scientist and dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Seton Hall University in South Orange, said both sides gave up central tenets during negotiations over the compromise. Legislators and Christie each got "a fair amount" of what they sought, he said.
"I would give this one to the Legislature," he said in an interview. "It's not going to be a constitutional amendment and that's what he was really pressing for. They got him to back down from of one of the central components of his plan."
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