I pulled out my tax bills for the last six years the other day to do get a sense of the changes that have occured in our own cost of living as we get closer to the end of our automobile lease. I figured I’d share.
First, consider the 2003/2004 bill, the one issued during the summer that year. The total tax load for 2003 was $4,760.46 — $699.99 for the county, $723.58 to the township, $62.92 for county open space, $64.49 for municipal open space, $3,105.10 for the schools and $94.38 for the Kendall Park fire district.
The most recent bill — 2008/2009: $6,222.79 total — $862 to the county, $983.13 to the township, $102.25 for county open space, $62.92 or local open space, $4,097.67 for the schools and $114.83 for fire.
During the last five years, as you can see, my tax bill — and by extension everyone’s tax bill — has gone up 30.7 percent, with the bulk of the dollar increase coming from the schools.
But that’s overly simple. The school increase, in percentage terms, is actually smaller than the increase in municipal taxes — 32 percent for the schools vs. 35.9 percent.
More significantly, the $6,222 is more than we should be paying for services in New Jersey, though not necessarily because we are spending too much. On the contrary, the state is not doing its part to pay for services, creating an unequal playing field that aids suburban towns with large corporate or commercial tax bases and leaves low-income communities in a hole.
Hank Kalet 