Gov. Christie proposes elimination of property tax rebates

To help close a looming $11 billion dollar budget shortfall Governor Chris Christie may eliminate the annual property tax rebate checks.

When they were first conceived the rebates did indeed offset our high property taxes. If you paid property tax, you got a rebate. But as the years went by exceptions were carved out of the rebate program thereby eliminating the checks for most New Jersey residents.

Now it is merely another "wealth transfer" program. Privileged classes (mostly senior citizens and the disabled) get checks, funded by the latest one cent increase in the sales tax. But, aside from a small percentage of low income homeowners, the rest of us do not. In fact, the people who do receive rebate checks can qualify for them even if they don't own a home and pay property taxes! How's that for insane? Renters get a rebate check for property taxes paid by their landlord.

Now is the time to scrap the silly rebate system for good. If there is money in the budget to offset property taxes, return it to the municipalities which can then actually lower their tax rates. It's no coincidence that the rebate checks are mailed out in the middle of October, timed to arrive just before election day. They're a gimmick to remind people to vote for the incumbents!

The governor is asking everyone to sacrifice in order to save our state from fiscal armageddon. Aid to towns and school districts has been cut. Salaries are being frozen, pension contributions were curtailed, health insurance co-pays will be increased, and some public employees will lose their jobs. Government services are being scaled back and NJ Transit plans to increase fares an average of 25%.

Yet the budget is still not balanced. Scrapping the rebate program is the sensible thing to do.

Of course killing the rebates won't be popular. The governor is going to be subjected to charges that he reneged on a campaign promise. So what. The promise to keep (or expand) the rebates was made while the severity of our fiscal situation was obfuscated by Jon Corzine's creative accounting. When Governor Christie took office he was blindsided by just how badly Corzine had underestimated the magnitude of the problem.

The rebate check gimmick has outlived its usefulness. It's time to enact a systemic change in how New Jersey collects taxes and pays for government services. To do that we must set aside the old ways of thinking and move forward with one coordinated purpose — to reduce the tax burden for all residents, not just for a select chosen few.

Posted at 15:19 by Chris Wysocki   [/nj_politics]   Comments | Perm Link |
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