9.9% School Tax Increase
Just When you Thought the Taxes Couldn't Get Any Higher!
Toms River and Lacey Township took advantage of the NJ legislature’s NEW bill and raised school taxes 9.9%. Depending on where you live, school taxes account for roughly 52% of your tax bill, depending on which district you live in.
Going From 2% to 9.9%
In 2010, Chris Christie, with the help of the legislature, lowered the existing ceiling on annual property taxes as a means to control property tax growth by not allowing districts to raise taxes above 2% without taking it to the voters first. Even with this cap, New Jersey still has the highest property taxes in the nation.
The Funding Formula
In, addition to property taxes, schools get funding from the state according to the funding formula. For the past 5 years Tom’s River and Lacey Township had massive cuts in their state aid by this mysterious Funding Formula. There were several other districts with similar cuts and you have to wonder when those schools will raise the property taxes.
Does anyone really care?
I was told that hardly any property owners showed up to these BOE meetings to argue against the raise in taxes. In contrast, the NJEA was out in full force to support it. Maybe it’s because people have no idea how property tax works? Or maybe its because they really do not care how their government works. I’m not saying that people needed to come out in droves to prevent this tax increase but they didn’t even come out to question why this was happening. My guess is that everyone is clueless and will be quite shocked come tax time next year.
It's simple to see what's going on. The Governor's office punished any area with Republican leaders. Ocean County got skewered as did places like Robbinsville, who has a Republican (middle of the road) mayor. The NJEA through the Robbinsville Education Association flooded BOE meetings with activists. They smeared BOE members and got their handpicked members put on the board. There was a $2MM tax increase that was voted down. They put it on the ballot this year as these activists fear mongered and said there would be a mass exodus of teaches and massive cuts in programs. The suckers fell for it and it got voted in. Higher taxes and you would think they got what they wanted. Just recently a teacher in the HS (under a pseudonym) smeared the outgoing Superintendent because he didn't fully support their agenda. A forensic investigation was done and it was found that a teacher/NJEA higher up did it from his school computer. He was suspended but it was all done under anonymity. Trust me, it's tiring watching people complain on Facebook and then do nothing. Fortunately the mayor in Robbinsville called out what was going on. He went on social media and made the investigation public. They tried to go to the DA's office to block him from doing so. When they pushed back on him he posted more. To you parents who complain on social media, you are part of the problem.
As you said, people complain online but never show up. Keyboard warriors