As a property tax payer, I can’t say I am happy about this development — though, I can’t say I’m surprised.
Gov. Jon Corzine yesterday confirmed New Jersey’s popular property tax rebate program is among the items that may be cut or curtailed as he tries to balance the upcoming budget.
“Everything is on the table, and that’s where it will stay” until the budget address March 10, Corzine said.
Corzine said a “suspension of the property tax rebates would be a better way to talk about it,” but quickly added, “there’s a purpose to providing property tax rebates.
“Property taxes are a heavy burden. It’s not a gimmick program. It’s meaningful. We’re not anxious about making these decisions,” Corzine said, speaking to reporters at Kean University in Union Township, where he addressed high school students attending a leadership conference.
With diminishing options for cutting the budget, Corzine is preparing plans to severely curtail or eliminate the rebates for the coming year, The Star-Ledger reported yesterday.
The rebate checks to homeowners and tenants, which cost the state about $1.7 billion last year, represent one of the largest remaining nonessential spending items in the budget Corzine will present to the Legislature next month. He has estimated the spending plan at $29 billion, down from the $32.9 billion budget originally passed this year.
“We have to make tough decisions. The people expect us to be prepared to make the tough decisions,” he said.
The property tax rebate program has always existed on somewhat shaky ground, the product of a political compromise that was unsustainable as the state’s budget difficulties ran headlong into the national recession.
The program’s likely dissolution, hopefully, will be an impetus toward real reform, which the rebates never were. The only way to address property taxes, while dealing the state’s budget problems is to change the way we collect and spend money. That means moving toward a broader income tax that covers more services, municipal and school-district consolidation and a complete review of the kind of programs the state and local governments offer. (I’d also consider gutting county government, which is little more than a mechanism to collect massive amounts of campaign contributions and reward contributors with contracts.)
Hank Kalet 