EXECUTIVE
DIRECTOR'S MESSAGE |
FROM
407 WEST
STATE STREET
|
|
Doing Too Much With Too Little
 In his budget address to the Legislature
in March, Governor Corzine said something that, to my recollection, has never been said by a New Jersey Governor before. In commenting on his proposal for ‘level funding’ of school aid and municipal property tax relief programs, the Governor admitted, “I appreciate that flat-funding in an inflating environment is a real cut.”
We welcome such candor. And we appreciate the problems that are being faced by the Administration and by the Legislature as they struggle to responsibly close a massive, inherited deficit. We only hope that our Legislators, like Governor Corzine, recognize how ‘level funding’ contributes to the problems being faced by local budget makers and property taxpayers.
Under the Governor’s proposal, for the fifth straight year, local property taxpayers will be denied the benefit of annual inflationary adjustments that are required by state statute. Local officials have been asked to do so much with so little for so long, that it sometimes seems people expect us to be able to do anything with absolutely nothing.
But the Governor’s budget message also gives us hope for the future. “In fact, as soon as we close out the difficult debates of the budget season,” he publicly stated, “we must move expeditiously to address the most pressing issue on the public’s mind: fundamental property tax reform.”
We still believe that a citizens’ property tax reform convention is New Jersey’s best, if not only, hope for real and lasting reforms. And we reject the argument that the Legislature has to act on either a special session or a citizens’ convention. Passage of a citizens’ convention bill does not preclude the possibility of legislative progress on property tax reform, through either the Legislature’s regular course of business or through a special session. Passage of a convention bill would merely set a time limit. The Legislature would have until Election Day 2006 to convince the people of New Jersey that they do not need a special convention to get true property tax reform. If the Legislature enacts meaningful and sustainable reforms, then there will be no need for a special convention. If it does not, then there must be a convention.
Editorial from New Jersey
Municipalities, Volume 83, Number 5, May 2006 |
EXECUTIVE
DIRECTOR'S MESSAGE |
FROM
407 WEST
STATE STREET
|
|
Doing Too Much With Too Little
In his budget address to the Legislature
in March, Governor Corzine said something that, to my recollection, has never been said by a New Jersey Governor before. In commenting on his proposal for ‘level funding’ of school aid and municipal property tax relief programs, the Governor admitted, “I appreciate that flat-funding in an inflating environment is a real cut.”
We welcome such candor. And we appreciate the problems that are being faced by the Administration and by the Legislature as they struggle to responsibly close a massive, inherited deficit. We only hope that our Legislators, like Governor Corzine, recognize how ‘level funding’ contributes to the problems being faced by local budget makers and property taxpayers.
Under the Governor’s proposal, for the fifth straight year, local property taxpayers will be denied the benefit of annual inflationary adjustments that are required by state statute. Local officials have been asked to do so much with so little for so long, that it sometimes seems people expect us to be able to do anything with absolutely nothing.
But the Governor’s budget message also gives us hope for the future. “In fact, as soon as we close out the difficult debates of the budget season,” he publicly stated, “we must move expeditiously to address the most pressing issue on the public’s mind: fundamental property tax reform.”
We still believe that a citizens’ property tax reform convention is New Jersey’s best, if not only, hope for real and lasting reforms. And we reject the argument that the Legislature has to act on either a special session or a citizens’ convention. Passage of a citizens’ convention bill does not preclude the possibility of legislative progress on property tax reform, through either the Legislature’s regular course of business or through a special session. Passage of a convention bill would merely set a time limit. The Legislature would have until Election Day 2006 to convince the people of New Jersey that they do not need a special convention to get true property tax reform. If the Legislature enacts meaningful and sustainable reforms, then there will be no need for a special convention. If it does not, then there must be a convention.
Editorial from New Jersey
Municipalities, Volume 83, Number 5, May 2006 |
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